Serendipity
by dangerlady
Summary: I love her. But she was already engaged to another man and although my heart was torn into pieces, I smiled as I congratulated them. A Sequel to Great Pretender.
1. Beginning

**Serendipity [Edited]**

Disclaimer: Samurai X is not mine.

******Chapter 1 – Beginning**(Kenshin's POV)

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A fairytale always starts with a cruel beginning and ended in a happily ever after.

I remember, Moe, after our bedtime story had once asked _was our life a happily ever after?_

I answered her yes, after all she was my child and I hate to disillusion her. But I wonder as I stood here in front of Fairy Tots Preschool, ready to fetch my darling child, if I had already reached the end of my story. Was this the happily ever after that was often told in every Disney related stories?

My life had the perfect formula, a making of a fairytale. A cruel beginning with my oppressive, workaholic father as the starring villain and his mistress as his henchman. He manipulated my life as he pleased. For half my life I was a puppet, a follower to my father's every command. I had no voice, no mind and no heart. And he put me in a cage, threw away the key and made me suffer.

But I met someone. She gave me a heart, taught me how to think and help me find my voice. She was the light at the end of my tunnel. And she was everything that I need. Tomoe Yukishiro was the princess of my story. She was the one who rescued me from the dark abyss I was living.

I married her despite the rumours that were spreading. I was told I was being a disrespectful fool by marrying someone when I recently lost a wife. But can't they understand? She was no someone. She was my life. Tomoe was everything that I wanted and more. In my eyes she was the only one that existed.

And what I thought would be my happily ever after ending was dashed by her sudden death. For so little time I had her and now she was gone. Is this all the end that the story that was my life had to offer?

And as I ponder this, I notice the head of my kid peeking out from the door of her classroom and a smile formed on my lips. She saw me and gaily waved at me with her chubby arms. I waved back, happy that at least she was not crying like what she did for the last three days she's been here in America. I was about to enter the preschool to fetch her when I noticed the little boy she was holding hands with. My eyes zeroed on that little spot where their hands clutched together and I felt fear.

_My little girl holding a boy's hand._

And it scared me to think that my little girl, my lovely daughter was starting the beginning of her story. A story that'll left me all alone and trapped to the four walls of my office. Was this really my kind of ending?

Instead of charging in and throw away the kid away from my child, I forced myself to stop and observe them from a distance. Her eyes shone brightly as she spoke to him, her hands excitedly gestures, and she spoke loudly and jovially. It's a contrast to the sullen, silent, sulking girl I was with this morning.

"Good afternoon! Are you going to take Mo home?" Ms. Peninsula asked pulling me out of my trance. I looked at her questioning gaze and nodded.

"Yes." I said. She nodded as her gaze went to where I was looking at awhile ago. She went ahead to get my daughter but I clutched her arm and stopped her. I wanted to get her on my own. I want to feel her hugs as soon as possible. _Is this what every parents feel? _Did my father ever felt this way?

"What is it sir?"

"I'll get her. Is that ok?" I asked and she nodded as she let me inside. She was instantly by my side and as she chatted about the qualities of my daughter that I already knew and bragged off, I helped myself on watching my daughter talking to her new friend. I felt uneasy but happy at the same time. It was a confusing feeling and it was one of those times that I wish Tomoe was alive. She knew what to do on these kinds of things. She was smart. And I wasn't.

My daughter noticed us first and excitedly she pointed us over to her new friend. I prepared my smile while thinking if this guy going to get my Moe. But when he looked to see us, I stilled. There was something familiar about him. Maybe it was the red hair. Or was it the eyes? But maybe what made me unable to move was the way he acts. He reminded me of someone…

_Or maybe it's just the hair._

"Excuse me." I said and left off with a smile. I approached them, a soft smile playing on my lips as my daughter hugged me fiercely. I hugged her back and ask, "How's America so far?"

"Amazing!" Mo replied chirpily as she then pulled her friend by her side and said, "Daddy this is Kenji. Kenji this is daddy."

"Hello." I said as I crouched down to their level.

"Hello." There was confidence in his voice and maturity in his stance that impressed me. My little girl really knew how to choose her friends.

"Daddy I was telling Kenji about…"

"Kenji!" A woman shouted, interrupting my kid's monologue. I stood up and looked at the terrified mother with bemusement. She was blond and scared although I couldn't see her eyes due to the sun glasses she had donned. I relaxed my stance so that I wouldn't scare her away and I guess it help a little bit.

"Mom." Kenji greeted as he hugged her tightly, "You came! What happen to Auntie? Are you okay now mom?"

"Your aunt Misao is working." She answered and I was curious at the fear in her voice.

_So this is the mom's brat huh? _I stood up and grabbed Mo to my side as we watched the spectacle of mother and child. They were an amusing pair to watch. Kenji only cared about his mom's well-being that he sounded patronizing. Opposed to that was the mom who only cared about fetching his son.

"Hi Auntie." Mo greeted, interrupting the mother and son moment. They both looked at her and the mother blushed. Mo smiled and extended her hand as she introduces herself, "I'm Mo. Kenji's friend."

It took a moment for her to reply as she stared intently at my daughter. Mo looked uncomfortable in her gaze that I almost step-in. But before I could do anything she already smiled and responded, "I'm Christine. Nice to meet you."

"Hello! And this is my father."

She looked at me; her smile even if it looked forced and strained was still plastered in her face as she said, "It's nice meeting you Mr.?"

"Himura. Kenshin Himura."

"It's nice meeting you Mr. Himura."

"It's nice meeting you too." I said courteously, decorum in place. I looked down at my watch and notice it was thirty minutes before an important meeting. I crouched down to looked at my daughter and said, "I'm sorry honey but we have to go now. Daddy has some important things to do."

"But...but!" She protested, nearly in tears. It tore my heart apart but business was business. We need to go.

Seemingly understanding our situation Kenji's mom sat down and said, "You'll meet Kenji tomorrow Mo. Don't worry. Right now your father has some important things to do. So don't worry okay? There is still tomorrow."

Mo was entranced and so was I. She was convincing and I have no doubts in my mind that she already persuaded Mo to go with me. My daughter's stubborn and I considered it a feat to dissuade her from her wants.

"Ok." Mo answered and I felt like applauding Kenji's mom.

I smiled at her thankfully and said, "It's nice meeting you Kenji. And thank you."

"It's okay. Drive safely." She said and we separately went our own ways. I was already talking on my phone when my daughter looked back and waved.

"Bye Kenji!"

"Bye Mo!"

And as I looked at my daughter's happiness, I was satisfied. Maybe this wasn't the ending I had imagined. Maybe this wasn't the happily ever after I wanted with Tomoe. But this was more than enough. I have my child here by side. And I was happy.

And maybe, this wasn't the only ending that I have. Maybe this was only another chapter of my life. And who knows, maybe today a new beginning of my story had begun.


	2. Mistake

**Serendipity [Edited]**

Disclaimer: Samurai X is not mine.

**Chapter 2 – Mistake (Kenshin's POV)**

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Experience, as they say, is the best teacher. You'll always learn from your mistakes, those fools in the world added.

What a load of bull crap.

Mistakes, even learned can be repeated over and over again. It's seems that humans are masochist in nature; we just like getting hurt over and over again. We love being fools. And I for one am the perfect example. Who would have known that I would have to defend my actions to that grouchy bunch that did nothing for the company, over and over again? Laughable isn't it? I, who was trained very young by my oppressive and manipulative father and spent half my life working for the company still needed to defend my actions to them. I should just quit. But no, I had to stay and do this nonsense over and over again. What do I have to prove?

I made my way to my office, still pissed from the distrust of the stockholders. Until now, even if she was dead and the incident long gone, they still blamed my wife from the pull out of half the investors after we got married. I was foolish, they told me, and investors love Kaoru Kamiya. And marrying Tomoe Yukishiro would just disillusion them. It might cause a pullout from our investors, they added. At that time I laughed. I see no reason for that to happen. But I was mistaken. They loved Kamiya too much, no not Kamiya but the love we portray in public. Hah! Love!

I was too preoccupied with the company, the need to establish back the trust that I lost that I couldn't even protect my wife from the critics around her. I heard their ill gossips but as hard as I tried to curb them, it still reached Tomoe. And my lovely Tomoe bear it all.

And again the word mistake slapped into my face. Haven't I learned from experience? Marriage was dumb, a prison and a cage. But I insisted. Because I love her too much to let go. But it wasn't enough and I was hurt all over again. Where did my insistence and love got me? Back in the four walls of my office. I sigh and place the documents on my table. I sat down on the swivel chair and open the application Excel to work again on my graph. The numbers appeared and I picked up the documents in the table to trace their existence. I was at it for hours when my secretary buzzed and told me that it was already four in the afternoon. I stopped typing and I looked up at the clock to double check. I muttered and expletive when I saw the time. I save the document, closed the laptop, grabbed my coat and hurried towards the door. I stopped by my secretary and told her a few instructions and I ran out of there.

There were shouting, a speeding ticket and a few fuck you sign before I reached my daughter's pre-school. I looked at my watch and sighed with relief when I saw I was only thirty minutes late. A new track record I might add. And she's probably still with her classmate at this time. The thought placate me because the last time I've fetched her, she was all alone waiting for me. _I'm still berating myself for that._

Maybe I should just let her nanny come and get her. But then, I would not be the first one to hear about her day at her school. But then again she would be alone and lonely waiting for me. _What a dilemma._

I combed my fingers through my hair in frustration and with a slammed closed the door behind me. I was still thinking ways to fix the problem when I caught sight of my daughter. She was in the playground playing with that red head kid. She saw me and she waved gaily. I waved back. I was about to call her when someone tapped me in the back.

"Mr. Himura?" The person asked and I nodded in affirmation. She looked flustered when she smiled politely at me and said, "I'm Tomoe's teacher. Can I talk with you for a little bit?"

I frowned and apprehensively asked, "Is something the matter?"

"Well, how about we talk about it in the classroom? Follow me."

I looked back at the playground and found Moe looking back at me worriedly. I smiled at her and signalled for her to wait. She nodded and I followed her teacher towards the classroom. Her teacher, a woman in her fifties, sat down in her chair and pointed at the little chairs for me to sit. I looked at it dubiously, wondering if I could ever fit myself in there. It was…tiny and…_pink. _I looked around for another chair to sit and found none.

"Mr. Himura?" The teacher inquired and I smiled stiffly as I forced myself to sit in the chair close to the table. I was right, it was tiny and uncomfortable. I just hope that when I get up, the chair won't be stuck on my butt.

"Is something the matter?" I asked again after I got around the idea of sitting in the pre-schoolers chair. The teacher, who looked like a twig, fixed her glasses and looked at me seriously. _She looked constipated._

"I'm afraid," she started and it got me all worried again. Did Moe gotten into a fight? Was someone bullying her? Is she alienating herself? What is it? What's the problem? And I looked up at the teacher in charge seeking for some answers. She continued not noticing the worry I was experiencing, "It's about Tomoe's grade."

_Grade? _Moe is fucking smart! What the hell is wrong with her grades? I tutored her when I'm sometimes free and I know for a fact she's awesome in all subject. _But then…_I composed myself and asked, "Is her grade slipping? Is she failing?"

"Tomoe is a wonderful child Mr. Himura. She is very intelligent when it comes to academic subjects. But unfortunately, the child is not musically gifted."

_What?_

"She is failing her music class." She finally said with a sigh as she noticed my confusion. She intertwined her hands together and looked at me sharply. I sat rigidly as the horrible memories of my teacher back in grade school resurfaced in my brain. She reminded me of one of my teachers, a person personally hired by my father to teach me some manners and etiquette that I 'desperately' needed. He was a nasty little son of a bitch.

"As you know, we are a prestigious school." She said and stopped as she noticed me drifting away. I nodded absently to show her I was listening. Satisfied that she got my attention wholly she continued, "And it is very unfortunate that one of the students here can't even identify their notes. Piano is very basic and I find it very sad that one of our star pupil is failing this subject. I want you to help her Mr. Himura. I know of some very good pianist that can help you."

She said and gave me a piece of paper with names and contact numbers contained in it. I looked at it and guessed that this were the list of the pianist she knew and recommend to tutor my daughter. I folded the paper and gently and carefully I stood up from the chair. Relief spread over me as the chair didn't get stuck on my butt.

"I'll see to it that she get someone to tutor her." I said and I stretch my hand to shake hers, "Thank you for telling me this Ms.?"

"Ms. Andrews. And no need to thank me, it's my job. Tomoe is an exceptional student and I don't want her point grade average to drop down just because she can't get the hang of playing the piano." Ms. Andrews commented pleasantly and I nodded at her while thinking that my idea of preschool and hers was way too different. I thought preschool would be enjoyable not that I was speaking from experience, mine was more horrible than this. But I was told on some help books that pre-school would be the best time on a kid's life. Not forced them to learn piano at such young age.

"Thank you again Ms. Andrews." I told her and I went out of her classroom, not missing the blush that formed in her face. I hurried towards the playground, conscious of the fact that Moe's playmate might have gone home by now. But my worries dissipated when I saw a familiar figure talking to Moe. Relieve and yet confuse, I hurried towards them.

"Daddy!" Moe shouted happily and it caught the other two's attention. The red head kid and Aoshi looked at my way and I smiled to them. Moe ran at my side and hug me fiercely before whispering worriedly, "Am I in trouble?"

I ruffled her hair and said, "Let's talk first before I decide if you are in trouble."

"Ok." Was her despondent response.

"Cheer up. We'll have all your favourite food for dinner." I asked just to get a smile out of her. I love her too much that it hurts to see her sad. And what better way to do that but to let her eat her favourite food?

She smiled and said, "Really?" I nodded and she jumped happily towards her red head friend. I straightened myself and met Aoshi's reprimanding gaze.

"You spoil her too much." He said as he watched the kids play with each other. I did not comment as I was still wondering what on earth he was doing here. I looked at the kid behind him and up at him again. _He's kid?_

"No."

I smiled and said, "I didn't say anything."

"It's obvious. You're way too transparent these days."

"Guess having kids change you." I answered. I looked at Tomoe and said, "We're going home darling."

"Already?"

"Yes."

"Aww…"

"Don't worry; we'll go with your uncle Aoshi until the parking area. You can play with your friend till then." I said and she happily pulled her friend ahead of us. The kid whispered something to her ear that made her laugh and looked back at Aoshi. She smiled impishly at us and then turned back her attention towards her friend.

"Who's the kid? Your girlfriend's?" I asked as the image of the kid's mother came to mind. Is she Aoshi's girlfriend? I never pegged him to accept another man's responsibility or dating blonds. And he hates kids.

"No." Aoshi immediately denied, "My girlfriend is the friend of the mother. Misao was supposed to fetch him but she's busy so she asked me to fetch him instead."

_Ah…so the mystery woman is name Misao, _"How about the mother? Workaholic?"

He shrugged and said, "Misao told me she's terminally ill."

_Poor kid._

"Pity isn't it?" Aoshi asked his eyes boring at the back of the kid. His eyes widen for a moment before he turned to looked at me. He looked confused when he looked at me and then a moment later he turned his attention back to his ward. Wryly he said, "If I don't know any better, I would have thought that, that kid is a result of a one night stand between you and a stranger. He strangely looks a little bit like you."

I laughed at his strange comment before I looked at the kid to see what he saw. But I only saw my daughter's friend and nothing that look like me. He was a red head, yeah, but that doesn't mean anything. I just smiled and changed the topic, "So this Misao, when will you introduce her to us?"

"What did the teacher wanted to talk about. Is everything okay?" He asked instead. I let him go this time but I don't think Megumi would never leave him alone. Misao brought a big change to our dear friend. And I know everyone; especially the nosy Megumi wanted the scoop and all the nitty-gritty details. After all, only a special someone could make Aoshi laughed so hard when he's in the phone. I knew this because last Christmas party, he was on his own world when his girlfriend called. And that began Megumi's mission to get to know her.

"Moe's failing her music class. Ms. Andrews gave me a list of pianist that can tutor her. But I'm thinking of just hiring a tutor and interview them one by one." I told him, "Do you know anyone that you can recommend?"

He looked absorbed in his own thoughts for awhile before facing me and said, "Unfortunately no. But I'll call you if I can find someone to tutor Moe."

"That would be good." I said. I took the keys out of my pocket as I saw the car up ahead. The kids were waiting beside it as they talk gaily at each other. They were whispering something and the red head kept pointing at Aoshi and both of them would laugh. I smiled as I said, "What do you think they're talking about?"

"Nothing good, I guess." Aoshi muttered darkly and waved at the kid and pointed to their car. He looked at me and said, "Bye Kenshin. And please don't forget Moe's vitamins."

"Yes honey." I said jokingly. But his stare meant business and I nodded at him. After all he was my other half after Tomoe died. He helped me raised the kid, no, everyone did. I was too immersed in my sorrow at that time that I left Moe to stranger's care. My friends were there to help whenever they can. And Aoshi was the one who punched me in the face. Yup, a big help.

"Bye Kenji! Bye Uncle Aoshi!" Moe shouted as she waved goodbye.

"BYE TOMOE! BYE UNCLE HIMURA!" Kenji shouted and my mouth lifts amusedly. _Uncle Himura?_

I open the passenger side and waved my hand towards the inside of the car. She gave me her bag and got in the car. I put her bag beside her and before closing the door I said, "Now, we'll talk about why you didn't tell me that you're failing your music class."

* * *

That was…

"_I thought if I told you that I'm failing you'll be so angry. Nanny said that you have so many problems at work that I should not disturb you. And me telling you that I don't know how to play piano will just disturb you."_

Ouch.

I lean my head in my chair and sigh. The towel I held half covered my face. _Am I really that busy? _Moe is too young to understand about this things but she still notice and believed about what her nanny told her. I was so guilty when I heard her explanation in the car that we made an impromptu stop in the toy store. And when we arrived home I was with her until she fell asleep. _I'm really very bad at this fathering thing._

I stared at the photo in the left side of the table and picked it up. I traced Tomoe's laughing face and said, "Help me Tomoe. I'm not getting this fathering thing right. I can't seem to balance my work and my duties as a father."

But there was no response and the picture still remained the same that I wanted so much to cry. I miss my wife and it gets worst at night. I sigh and put the frame back in its proper place and went to the walk in closet to grab a shirt. I hang the towel in the towel rack to dry and went back to my study that was adjacent to my room to do some work. I opened my email and reviewed the files my secretary sent me. It was something to do with the take-over the company planned to do. I reached out for the documents that was needed and began to type, revised and re-read everything. I put my attention wholly to my work that I began to forget every worries and problems outside work.

_Work was my drug. Addiction. My alcohol. My anti-depressant pill._

I was too absorbed that I almost jump when the phone rang. I looked up at the clock and saw it was already two in the morning and I deduced that the phone call was business related. It might be the branch in Asia that needed my attention. Rubbing the tiredness away from my eyes, I lifted half the documents in the table to look for the phone that was buried underneath. I beamed happily as I found it.

"What is it?" I asked groggily, my eyes succumbing to sleep.

"Kenshin!"

Startled from the unexpected caller, my eyes widen awake. _Is something the matter? He never called this late!_

"Aoshi?" _And was that a girl shouting in the background?_

"I found someone that can tutor Moe." He answered excitedly, frantically, _nervously? _Aoshi seemed unsure and excited. As if he had discovered something big. Or I might just be low on sleep and my imagination went to overdrive. But why on earth is he calling so late?

"Ok. Who is it?" I asked, "And you can call this morning about this you know."

"It is morning." He replied sarcastically and thoughtfully continued, "And if I waited later in the morning I might decided not to tell you."

"Why?" I asked my curiosity peaked. I heard some scuffling in the background and a voice that I was so sure was Sano shouted death threats. Call it instincts but I have a bad feeling about this.

"Never mind that." Aoshi answered almost…_guiltily? _"Her name is Christine Weiss and I know her personally so I'm sure she can take care of Moe splendidly."

Still curious, I typed her name in google search but was disappointed to find that she was not in any social networking site. _Can I even trust this woman?_

"Yes you can."

_Did I say that out loud?_

"Yes. Yes." He said impatiently and continued, "When can you interview her? She's available this Monday."

"Is she available this Saturday?" I asked as I looked at the schedule in my blackberry.

"Yes. She'll be a perfect candidate Kenshin." Aoshi sales pitch and I lifted my eyebrows in curiosity. I could still hear Sano (I'm 100% sure it's him) shouting in the background albeit more muffled and distant. The more I'm curious and I'm still ignoring the other part of me telling me that this was something bad, the more I wanted to meet this woman. She got Aoshi this excited and unsure.

"I'm sure she is." I answered him as I clicked my files closed and put the Mac to sleep. I yawned and asked, "Hey, Aoshi, is Sano with you?"

There was dead silence in the other side and I heard someone kicked in the background. And finally Aoshi answered, "What are you talking about? Well, I'm going to sleep. Goodnight Kenshin." And he disconnected. I looked at the phone in utter bewilderment. _What the hell was that about?_

I chuckled and put the phone back in the receiver. Whatever was that about I'll still be able to know about it sometime in the future. If persuasion doesn't work then blackmail Sano. I yawned and I walked tiredly towards my bed. The big bed looked so inviting that I just fell in the middle and drifted to sleep.

* * *

_This is the nice thing about being a workaholic. I'm too tired to notice I was all alone in the big, spacious bed. And I'll stop missing Tomoe Yukishiro. And so maybe this is the reason why I still insisted on working in that damn company. It made me a workaholic monster. And again and again I do this. Mistake? Yes. But I am happy._


	3. Chance

**Serendipity [Edited]**

Disclaimer: Samurai X is not mine.

A/N: Nadya Lubov – it was unavoidable. If I don't completely rewrite the story then it won't be in Kenshin's POV only. But the context is still the same but shorter. Hotaru Himura – you'll meet Kaoru soon. This is actually a continuation of Great Pretender, not a separate story.

**Chapter 3 – Chance (Kenshin's POV)**

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Heads

_Damn _

I know it was wrong for me to leave everything to luck. It has a 50% chance of being unfavourable. I grimaced in disgust as I picked up the coin that fell in the steps leading to the entrance of the hospital. I stared at the foreboding building and I felt chills went up my spine. _I hate this day. _

I was told I was required to visit. My father's secretary added that I needed to leave Moe behind. I was just happy to oblige. I don't need Moe to see the devil. It might scar the child. And so after I fetched Moe from school, I drove my way to the hospital. But as my car got nearer and nearer to St. Clair's hospital, the more I doubt my decision to go. _Why on earth do I want to see that old man's face?_

_To laugh at him. _

And that thought sealed my resolve. Or so I thought. When I finally reached the hospital, I can't seem to move my feet. Intuition told me it was a wrong move but my brain wanted to laugh at my father. I was in a conundrum. So I made the logical choice. I relied on my luck.

I tossed the coin, wishing it would be tails.

Heads – I'll go and 'visit' my father and I would laugh at him in the deep recess of my brain. It sealed my fate. And so with hesitation and a little bit of fear, I entered the hospital of doom. I passed by the nurses' station, no need to ask for directions, his hospital room was ingrained to my memory and went directly towards the elevator. Fourth floor – for the rich, terminally ill.

"Wait! Wait for me!" A short woman in a nurse's uniform shouted. I pressed the open button and waited for her to get in. I glanced at her briefly as the elevator door closed. She was looking at the number I pushed and when I saw her do nothing I assumed she must be headed to the same floor as I was. She looked oddly familiar. Like I saw her on a…_yes, a magazine! _She's the granddaughter of the business tycoon, Kashiwazaki Nenji. Great man. Inspiration to all. I have forgotten her name though.

"Excuse me Miss?" I asked and she looked at me expectantly. I glanced on her name tag and I almost could not stop the grin from spreading on my face. She tapped her feet impatiently; her polite smile was still plastered in her face and it was a sign for me to hurriedly make up an excuse. And so with a little effort I asked looking like I cared, "Is this hospital really the best? My father is here and he's terminally ill. I just wanted a little hope that it's going to be okay."

Her features soften and she answered gently but proudly, "Don't worry sir. This is the best hospital in the state. I'm sure your father would be well taken care of."

_I hope that is not true. _

I sighed with relief and said, "That's good. I'm relieved. My father's really important to me." And I'm sure I was really laying it on thick. But she was looking at me sympathetically and confusedly that I felt it was okay to go over the top. She smiled at my reaction but the confusion in her eyes did not vanish and so was the staring. Curious, I asked, "What is it? Do I look too haggard? Too worried? I don't want my father to know I did not sleep because I was so worried. I don't want him to worry."

"Ahh…no…I'm sorry…it's just that you seem so familiar…like I have seen you before?" She said uncertainly and I rocked my brain for that possibility. And I realized she might have seen me in the portraits I have in my house when I asked Aoshi to get Moe's project since he's office was near in our house. **She might have been with him at that time.** Or perhaps she had seen me in the pictures in Aoshi's photo album. But I doubt it. Aoshi and photo album? Hah! Impossible!

"No, I'm pretty sure I just met you today." I told her as the elevator open with a ping. She nodded at me uncertainly before she went out of the elevator, I followed suit. I walked beside her and asked, "You going this way?"

She looked to where I pointed at and nodded. So in silence we walked together towards our different destination. I wanted to ask her questions but I stopped myself. It's better if I teased Aoshi himself. And to amuse myself, I content on watching her quietly. So he likes short girls huh? I never knew. And she's young looking too. If she was not on her nurse's uniform I might pegged her to be fifteen. That Aoshi, how on earth did he get this girl? She looked way too cheerful for a sombre man like him.

"This is my stop." She said, referring to the door next to my father's room. I told her goodbye and she smiled politely before she went inside. I watched her go and I heard her muttered the word _Christine _before closing the door behind her_. _I let go of the grin I was holding and took out my phone and texted Megumi. I wanted to lord over her that I've already seen the mystery girl. _So that was the famous Misao huh? _

I pocketed my phone and opened the door to my father's room. Calming myself and reining the urge to choke my father's neck, I went inside. I was greeted by Mrs. Kamiya, worry lining her face. I smiled stiffly and murmured encouraging words, all the while wanting to bash her head in the concrete wall. What was she doing here anyway? She was the glorified mistress. Not fit for this sombre family affair. I searched for my mother and found her sane and staring in the chair far away from the bed.

"Mother." I muttered and I hugged her tightly. She hugged back and whispered in my ear, "You should visit me often. Your visits are sparse and I badly wanted to see you."

"I will." I said even if it sometimes hurt to see her unable to remember me as she immersed herself in the past. But she looked better now and healthy too and I was glad for that. Maybe her being here was only for show after all I saw reporters loitering around in the lobby. And that horrid bitch was here for a friendly support. Tsk. _What a messy family affair. _

"You're father's here." The horrid bitch spoke stiffly and I practiced my frown and worry. Everyone here was playing their roles splendidly and I don't want to disappoint. I must give my 100%. I faced them and noted with great pleasure that my father was still in a coma and Kamiya was properly observing proper decorum. She looked the same as before, thanks to science. _She must have spent a lot. _And then she shrilly asked, "Well? Aren't you going to say something?"

_Nice boob job _but I don't think that's nice so instead I cried out, "Father! Are you okay? What happen to you?" _Did Mr. Kamiya finally know about your affair with that bitch? Is he going to kill you?_ I looked at Mrs. Kamiya and I almost wanted to laugh at the please look in her face. _Stupid. _

"He had a heart attack. But he's going to be okay now." She said softly and she gripped her hand, to stop herself from touching him. The play was still ongoing and it was my mother's job to care for her husband. Kamiya, the glorified mistress must keep her hands to herself. And that really amused me. I could feel my mother standing from her sit and walking towards my father. I saw her hand caressed his face. But I was afraid to look at her and see that blank look in her eyes as she once again drifted back to la-la-land. Thankfully I was saved by dealing with family matters by my phone ringing. I immediately excused myself and I kissed my mother in the forehead and stopped at her nurse to tell her a few things before I went out of the room and received the call. It was just my secretary informing me that the meeting for this Friday was moved to Monday. I nodded at the information and disconnected the call.

I went back to the room, stopping by in front of the door as I debated going in. If I go in, it would be torture. If I don't I can't look and laugh secretly at my father's poor state.

"Kenshin?"

Startled, I looked to the direction of the voice and my eyes widen as I saw Sano. He came from the room next door, the one Misao went in. And he looked as shocked as I was.

"What are you doing here?" He asked as he hurriedly closed the door. He looked tired, bruised and defensive. And if I wasn't that occupied with my own problems, I would have probed more on Sano's oddity. Well, less odd than usual. Megumi had a theory she shared secretly with me. She told me that she suspected Aoshi and Sano's souls interchange. I agreed with her that time. We were just too drunk to make sense out of the situation. But one thing for certain, Sano became a recluse after the car accident.

"Kenshin? Yo, Kenshin!" Sano snapped and I realized I must have zone off. _How humiliating._

"I'm visiting my father." I said to him and pointed to the name plate that was hanged in front of the door. He dropped his hand in the wheels of his wheelchair and moved it to the direction I was pointing and read the name that was written. And he laughed. Loud. I watched in curiosity as he doubled himself with laughter. I made no comment. I knew my father's situation was laughable but I don't think it was that funny. He was laughing at something else. Something ironic and I bet related to that black eye. My eyes drifted to next door and intuition told me it was related. But my brain can't fathom why so I just dismissed it.

It took him awhile to stopped laughing. And it was because a nurse threatened to put him back to his room. It was my time to laugh softly, unable to disagree that Sano needed medical attention. He might have regained back his strength and the will to live (he was suicidal before) but I'm sure his head still have a lot of defects. If it were not then he would not be able to drive Megumi away. She took care of him after the accident but a year later we just heard that Megumi transferred somewhere far away and Sano was unreachable. When the daily, obligatory Christmas party came, they went out their way on avoiding each other.

"I don't look sick so stop laughing Kenshin. Stupid nurse, can't she see I'm just a visitor here!" Sano grumbled angrily and my eyes widen to see life came out of those dead, guilty eyes. I was so surprised that Sano can't help but asked me about it.

"No, it's nothing." I answered. I caught sight of the door behind him and I crashed right back to reality. I can't escape the inevitable huh? I still have to stay there for awhile and pretend to be a good son. At any ordinary circumstances, I would have bolt immediately but my mother was there and she can read me perfectly. I'll feel guilty whenever I see her sad and I can't leave her all alone with those kinds of people. My poor mother betrayed by the person she called her best friend and the person she love wholeheartedly. But until now even if I knew she knew, she still pretended that there was nothing going on. And that pretence made her crazy.

"Your mother is there?" Sano asked as he noticed my silence. I looked at him and smiled tightly. He opened the door and said, "C'mon then. I want to see Auntie and I worry about Uncle you know. What happen to him?"

Sano hated my father. "Heart attack. He's in a coma."

"Oh! The more he needed prayers then." He said and I smirk. _Yeah, right. Like I would pray for that man. _And before Sano could truly open the door he stopped and stared at me seriously and said, "You know I love you, right? You're my best friend and I'll do anything that I think is good for you."

This is…unnecessary. But I humoured him as I remembered the time he humoured me as I tried to get him out of his misery. And so I tapped him in the back and said, "I know. You love me as a friend."

"No." He said and gripped my arm, hard, "I love you as a man."

I stepped back, my eyes widen dramatically. But I saw him grin and I relaxed. Good. Because I was really scared. I slapped him in the head and said, ".. Funny. Very funny."

He laughed and said, "You should have seen the look in your face! Hah! Priceless."

I shook my head and opened the door to the room. I waited for him to get inside and I closed the door behind me.

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I grabbed my coat and headed downstairs in a hurry. I looked at my watch and swore as I saw it was forty-five minutes before the meeting. I was going to be late for the first time. This is would not do well in the yearly performance evaluation. Those old men were sharks when it comes to looking for my fault.

"Did Tomoe already go to her play date?" I asked the maid as she handed me the coffee. She nodded and I smiled. Good.

"Sir?" The girl voiced out tentatively as my hand reached for the doorknob. Annoyed and a little high strung from the coffee I just drank, I asked, "What?"

"The tutor is here for the interview. I sent her to wait in the library just like you instructed three days ago."

_Tutor?_

_What tu…oh shit!_

I slapped my forehead with my palm and swore like a sailor in my thoughts. For all days that I forget! I was too giddy for that damn meeting with the executives of Hans Sung Corporation, the company we planned to buy, that I might have erased today's schedule and exchanged it for today's meeting. I received news for their agreement to settle things peacefully just this Friday that without meaning to, replaced the schedule for today with the meeting. _Oh gods, I forgot to tell my secretary to cancel the interview!_

The maid looked at me expectantly and I was tempted to tell her to just send the tutor home and let her come back tomorrow. But that would be rude. And Aoshi did recommend her. I will never hear the end of it if he finds out. _Damn! _But I really can't afford to be late.

"Tell her to come back tomorrow at eight in the morning." I said and then hurried outside without waiting for the maid's response. But what greeted me soured my mood more. There in the garage was a flat tire and the driver I occasionally hire when I was too tired to drive was bending over to fix the damage. _This day is not my day._

"When will that be fix?" I asked and the driver straightened himself and answered, "Don't worry sir, it would only take twenty to twenty-five minutes."

Great. Just fucking Great.

I smiled at him and thanked him for his hard work and I went back inside. _Might as well interview the applicant._ I hurried towards the library and caught up with the maid in the hallway. I told her that I'll do the interview and she went back to do her job. I texted my secretary that I'll be late and told her to note their attitudes. It's one way of knowing how to win a deal in business. I returned the phone back to my pocket and when I was about to open the door to my studies, I heard a voice.

I would not have stop if the voice wasn't so fucking familiar. It was distant and muffled but my mind easily supplied the words and the face that came with it.

_"Oi! That's my fortune cookie! And I bet yours sound more depressing than mine."_

No.

_'Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday Old man! Sorry couldn't resist the jibe! Happy Birthday Kenshin!'_

No. Stop thinking about her.

_"Kenshin!"_

Kaoru.

My legs moved without my command and I found myself hurriedly opening the door of the library. I was expecting the black haired woman from my memories. The person I detest the most. And for a second, the reality that she's dead didn't even came to mind. I just wanted to…_no! No! NO! NO!_

But what was in the other side disappointed me. It wasn't the girl I thought I would see. It wasn't the girl that my mind had came up with. She was different. Blonde. Glasses. Frail. She's nothing like her.

The woman heard the door open and she turn to looked at me but the smile she prepared turned into a frown when she saw me. She was startled and I was too. Even if she wasn't the woman I thought she would be but I knew I've seen her before. _Where was it? _

And when I heard her utter my name, I could have sworn that it was Kaoru Kamiya that have said it.


	4. Saturdays

**Serendipity**

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Disclaimer: Samurai X is not mine.

A/N: **Timeline:** The accident happened six years ago. **Kaoru Kamiya is dead for six years.** Four years after the accident Tomoe died. Tomoe is dead for two years. Tomoe and Kenshin had a child one year after the accident. Moe is 5 years old and Kenji is six years old.

**Reminder: **For those who did not know, I edited chapter 3 so read the ending part of it first. So that you'll understand why Kenshin is interviewing Christine this chapter. Favourite food of Kenshin? I leave that to your imagination. So this chapter is a little long. So happy reading.** unbeta-ed**

**Another Reminder: **Sorry about taking this chapter out after a hour and a half of posting it in the net. I feel like there's something lacking so I had to take it out. **  
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**Chapter 4 – Saturdays (Kenshin's POV)**

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**Interview**

_Oh. _

Was all I could think about when I realized my (stupid) mistake. This woman wasn't that person (logically, it's impossible too since she's dead for six years). She was an American with blond hair and blue eyes and the works. Not the black hair menace in my thoughts. I relax my stance and breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe there was disappointment somewhere in my feelings but I rather not think about why I was feeling that way. Too much search deep in my soul kind of nonsense. Not my thing.

I fixed a smile on my face and offered the stunned girl a chair to sit so we could begin our interview. I sat in the swiveling chair behind the big mahogany table and reached out to take her resume.

But all I got was a blank stare from the woman. She looked at my hand and back to my face again in an expression I was pretty sure was horror. I was bemused. She looked stoned and I have to suppress myself from asking if she was high on drugs. After all, this was the woman that Aoshi recommended. She must be terrific. Or Aoshi finally went bonkers. I went for the latter.

"Your resume?"

"Huh?" The woman muttered as she finally snapped out of her shock. But her voice was still too low for me to hear properly.

"You're here for the interview, right?"

"Interview?" She parroted and I was beginning to get irritated by this airhead. I smiled thinly as I said, "Yes, the interview you're here for? Do you have your resume?"

She looked at the paper in her hands which I guessed was the resume and back at me with panic in her eyes. I leaned in my chair and clasped my hands together as I waited for her to get herself together.

"No!" She shouted unexpectedly and my eyes widen at her sudden outburst. Her face colored red as she realized what she just did. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply and tried to explain with her hands waving around for emphasis, "What I mean is…I mean…I mean, it's great…working for you Mr. Himura but I don't think I'm qualified for the job. So I'm sorry to have wasted your time. Goodbye."

She _annoys _me. No explanation. She just did.

"It would be my decision to see if you're fit for the job." I told her and she stopped midway from opening the door. Sensing that I got her attention I added, "You already wasted both our time so why not just finish this interview? Sit down."

She tightened her hold on the doorknob as she faced me and answered, "I'm really, _really _sorry to waste your time but I realized that I'm not good at this kind of thing. And I am really not keen on this interview. I did this as a favor for a friend. So goodbye Mr. Himura, it was nice talking to you."

I snorted and her face contorted into confusion. "We both know that's bull. Why, before I even step into this room I heard you psyching yourself that you could get this job. And I heard you and I quote, 'I need to get this job. I desperately needed this job'."

She muttered something and her lips thinned in displeasure. I got her there. But come to think of it, that voice I heard before I step into the room was quite different. I even (stupidly) mistook it for someone else voice. Now, it seems like she deliberately changed her voice….pfft. Crazy thoughts. Didn't I already establish the fact that I was merely hallucinating that time? I don't know why the thought of Kamiya crept on me like that. I never thought of her since Tomoe died.

And I should really stop thinking about her now.

"So should we get on with the interview? Clock's ticking."

"Since I'm taking too much of your time. I'll just go and disappear. Bye." She said and she opened the door but before she could get out I said, "Why are you so afraid on being interviewed by me?"

She's irritable. This woman was getting on my nerves. I never experience, not ONCE, that somebody wanted nothing to do with me or being my employee. People clamoured to work under me.

"I'm not afraid." She said indignantly and I calmly raised an eyebrow in question. Thank god for the years of practicing indifference.

"What are you then beside not afraid?"

"Not interested."

"Oh really?" I asked unconvinced. Why would she not be interested? Her starting salary is big and if my child likes her then her Christmas bonus would be bigger. It's a very interesting job. Anyone would snap up this opportunity.

"Yes, really." She said confidently and I was reminded yet again that I seem to meet this woman somewhere.

"So in a span of," I stopped and stared at the clock, "Twenty five minutes you lost interest?"

"Yes." She answered and I noticed that she was standing there in her heels for quite some time. I never quite grasped how women can handle the abomination that was called high heels.

I laughed. "Impossible."

"Get off your high horse. Not everybody wants to work with you."

"Really? It seems to me that you're really just afraid of me. Or you're stoned. You know, no one would dare hire you if you act like that. You should be thanking me that I'm still giving you the time of the day despite of your rude behaviour." I said confidently, sure of my assessment of her. I can't even fathom why I want to interview her. Judging her now, this woman has completely no work ethics.

"I'm not." She said, gritting her teeth in anger. I crossed my arms over my chest and said, "Prove it."

And she did. She marched with her head held up and put her resume in front of me. She sat down in the chair and smiled. "Nice to meet you Mr. Himura." She said in this fake preppy voice, "It would oh so exciting to work with your kid."

I smiled in response as I wondered if this girl had gone nuts. Maybe she was really high on drugs. I took the resume off the table and read the important parts. _Yadda…yadda…oh! A preschool teacher…yadda…yadda…won a piano contest when she was 12…yadda…yadda…yadda…studied in Julliard…yadda…yadda…had a concerto when she was 18 and again when she was 20…work in Jacobs School of Music for three years….work part time in Arizona State University for half a year…_Impressive resume.

"With this kind of resume you could get into any music school that you want. So why do you prefer to work with my kid?" I asked curiously still looking at her CV.

"It was the first job that was offered to me when I got out of the hospital. And I really like kids."

Hospital? Huh.

I put down her resume and asked, "So why were you hospitalized?"

She fidgeted in her sit as she regarded me thoughtfully. She opened her mouth to speak but the maid by the door beat her to it. "Sir, the car's ready."

_The car?_ And then I remembered. _Shit, the meeting!_

"You're hired." I said, not paying heed to her shock expression or the trepidation and horror that were clearly shown in her face. I dismissed her protest as I told her to come back next Saturday at 10 am sharp. And I then walked hurriedly towards the car hoping that I would not be **that **late for the meeting.

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In between Saturdays (Wednesday?)**

You know I just realized something. My world revolved around my friends and Tomoe.

So when shit happens, like for example the car accident that killed Kamiya and made Sano stupider than usual, it will naturally cause some mayhem in my life. But I moved on. We moved on. My natural coping mechanism surfaced. I don't talk about it. Neither would my friends. We led our lives as usual. Just moving on.

So it's not a mystery that a week after the accident and a day before the funeral would Aoshi moved back to America to finish his job. It was his job as I overheard him explained to Megumi, tragedy happens but life moves on and he needed to be back on the job as soon as possible. Although he had cried after Megumi left him alone. I doubt he knew I was listening and I was too preoccupied with myself to let him know I was there. And three months later when we met again, there was no traced of grief in his face and he looked like he was happy. That was the time I learned about the mystery girl. And knew that he moved on.

And it was not shocking to learn that Enishi immediately went back to Europe three hours after he attended the funeral. Kamiya died. There was no reason for him to stay in Japan. I never saw him again after that. But I assumed he moved on.

But it took Megumi a month to break down. I was told she cried in the middle of an operation. She took a leave of absence and vacation somewhere in the Caribbean. The next time I saw her was three months after her breakdown and she looked like she recovered from the tragedy. She went back to her old preppy, workaholic self.

It was Sano that took awhile to recover. During the funeral he had stayed in the hospital and I was told that he rejected the offer to attend. I never saw him cry though not even after he heard that Kamiya died in the accident. But he did almost cry when he learned he can't walk again. I was told he closed himself to his own world and not even his parents could reach him. I was told he attempted suicide. I was told he drank himself to death. But that was all gossips, it was told to me by other people who heard it from other people. Nobody knew what really happen to Sano. At that time we all minded our own business. Too tired from our grief to help him recover from his own. But a year later when all things forgotten and people already move on, we successfully punched Sano out of his misery. And that was the time he finally showered and looked human again.

So as I said my friends moved on. The car accident happened six years ago. And other shitty things happened after that. I learned that present shitty things erased the past shitty things like for an example, when Tomoe died four years after the accident due to childbirth; it was a big shitty thing that pushed me off my equilibrium. It was supposed to be our second child. We were supposed to be happy again. Not that we weren't happy before it was just that I had too much on my mind to remember to be happy.

From the start our love wasn't the happily ever after one. Our marriage was opposed by all sides. Only Aoshi, who stood as the only witness of our small civil wedding, accepted our decision. I was told it was too early to replace my dead wife. I told them to go to hell. It took me years to finally have Tomoe by my side. Five months after the car accident we got married in court. I remember that day vividly as if it happened just yesterday. She wore a plain white dress and she looked more beautiful than ever. I love her. I was ecstatic. And it was too easy to ignore the feelings that surfaced after Kamiya's death. I don't feel guilty anymore because I forcefully reminded myself that I was happy and this was what I wanted. I even ignore the sadness and guilt in my wife's expression. I just wanted Kamiya completely out of my life. I really hate to feel so loss just because of her.

_Fuck_

So, why was I searching deep in my feelings thingy nonsense again? _Oh yes, _I had a shitty day today. And when Sano invited me for a drink, I grabbed the opportunity and got myself drunk. Surprisingly Aoshi was at the bar by the time we arrived there. Hazily, I remembered Aoshi or Sano asking questions about that tutor Aoshi recommended. They seem interested by my answers. _Too interested_ if you asked me. I answered every question with all the honesty I could muster. I simply don't care about her. I only care about her work and the result. But I did also admit that she annoyed the hell out of me.

I closed my eyes and snuggled further in the bed. And thanks to my drunken state, I slept blissfully that night. No dreams of Kamiya crying. And I did not even reach out to the other side of the bed and hoped that I could reach for Tomoe.

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1st Saturday**

Contacts

It was the first thing I noticed the second time I met her. Blue? It's probably not the true color of her eyes. Intuition tells me it's black. My common sense otherwise debated that noticing an employee's eye color was a waste of time.

"You'll have to tutor Moe every Saturday from 10 pm to 4 pm. You can have your lunch and your snacks here. And Moe's nanny will be at your disposal. Is that clear?" I said as I watch the time on the clock that hangs on the wall behind her. She was punctual, I gave her that and responsible too since she still went here even though she kept repeating she did not want the job. But she was still insisting that she was not right for the job and I needed to hire another person to replace her.

"Nonsense. I already hired you. It'll be too much work to search for another one." I said as I waved her protest off. She might irritate me again. And she, for some unexplainable reason, annoys the hell out of me. And I can't have that now because after this, I have to meet my father in the hospital for a social visit. And oh yes, that reminds me, "What's your name again?"

Is it just me or did she just sigh with relief? "Weiss. I'm Christine Weiss."

Hmm…she does not look like a Christine. More like a…

"Daddy!"

Startled, the shout pulled me out of my thoughts and we both saw my daughter barged in, in the library. I smiled when I saw her and caught her as she jumped to hug me.

"Have you eaten your breakfast?" I asked her and she nodded. She then looked at the woman sitting at the visitor's chair and her eyes widen in recognition. I was about to ask if Moe happened to know her when my kid shouted and pointed, "You're Kenji's mommy!"

She is?

Seeming to catch my confusion, Moe explained, "Remember daddy? We met Kenji's mom that time when you first saw me play with Kenji. She even explained to me that you needed to work that's why I couldn't play with Kenji."

_Oh. _That's why she seems familiar. She was that woman.

"Isn't that great? Both of you could get along. She is your piano teacher Moe. Be nice okay?" I said patting Moe's head. I could feel the vibration of my phone in my pocket and I knew it was my father's secretary calling me. I put my daughter down and offered my hand out to Ms. Weiss for a handshake.

She looked at it and she only shook my hand when Moe bounded over to her and hugged her legs.

"Nice meeting you, Ms. Weiss. Take care of my daughter."

She pulled out her hand and smiled wryly as she looked at the beaming girl besides her and said, "Okay."

"That's good to hear." I said and walk over to them to give a kiss in the cheek to Moe. I then patted her head and said, "Be good, okay darling? I have to go and meet your grandpa."

"You will?" Moe asked and she excitedly jumped up and down as she added, "Can I meet grandpa and grandma? I never met daddy's parents!"

I kept my face devoid of emotion as I tried to think of a way to answer her. I can't really say to her that my father and his mistress loathed the idea that a child was borne out of my marriage with Tomoe. My father especially hated Moe. For him, it was a betrayal to Mr. Kamiya. Laughable really, since he's the one who did all the fucking.

"Maybe next time sweetheart when your grandpa is already well."

"Promise?" She asked imploringly, her big eyes looking at me trustingly. I just smiled and nodded. I stood up and caught the disapproval on Ms. Weiss' face. And my mood soured more. But I just smiled at her tightly before I went out of the library and into the car. Still ignoring the phone call.

When I was safely inside the car that was the only time I let myself feel sad for my daughter and angry at my father and that stupid's tutor's disapproving face. _What did she know? _And another thing…I raised my hand, the one that I shook hands with and wondered, w_hy was the feeling so achingly familiar? _It felt like I held it many times before. And my heart beat wildly at the thought.

Preposterous. I only met her thrice.

I laughed softly at my stupidity and I took the cellphone out of my pocket. I ignored the three miss calls from the same number and dialed my secretary's number. When I heard her picked up I directly said, "Can you do a background check on a Christine Weiss?"

"Yes sir." She answered unperturbed. She was used to it. It was customary for every new employee that work personally to the family to have their background checked. It was a necessity to ensure longevity in the business. And my family have a lot of enemies.

I ended the call and closed my eyes as I prepared for another hour of seeing my father.

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**3rd Saturday**

Intriguing

Was the first thing I found out when I saw her shocked reaction when I mentioned that she can bring her son over. I had explained that it was for the benefit of all. Moe can play with Kenji and she won't spend money for baby-sitting. When Miss Weiss heard it, she immediately paled and it scared me to think that she might faint over the news. Her reaction was overly ridiculous that I immediately find it intriguing.

"He can't. I mean I can't. Ah...no...what i meant to say is, my friend promised to take care of him so it's alright." Miss Weiss explained hurriedly. And I stopped myself from mentioning that I wasn't asking but I was too polite to mention that it was an order. After all, Moe can't have everything that she wants. If Miss Weiss find it troublesome to have her kid by her side then so be it. But this would be major trouble to explained to Moe.

"I see. Are you sure about that? You can have a bonding time with your son if he's here." I tried again persuading her. But she was adamant as she repeatedly said no and explained, "My son likes to be with my friend. So it's his Saturday ritual or something. So it's really okay. I know his safe there...with my friend I mean."

"I see. Well if you change your mind you don't have to ask me. You can bring your son over any time you want." I told her as I bent down and entered the car. As I closed the door I heard her mutter under her breath the word fat chance but I was already occupied with the headlines in the business section of the newspaper to care.

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**4th Saturday**

My daughter likes her.

It's Miss this. It's Miss that. Whenever I'm with Moe all I could hear was how wonderful was her new piano teacher. She even insisted that she wanted to see Ms. Weiss everyday. Personally, I call it a miracle. But professionally I saw her as a terrific employee. There's only a handful of picked individuals that can handle Moe's tantrum. Megumi had said it was because I spoiled the girl too much. Frankly, I thought they were just pathetically inadequate. But now, this Miss Weiss can handle Moe just perfectly. I developed a new respect for that woman.

"Miss Weiss is here daddy! Miss Weiss!"

Ah! _Speaking of the devil. _I smiled indulgently as I listened to her high pitched voice calling out to her new tutor. I distanced the phone from my ear as I waited for my daughter to calmed down.

"So the tutoring is going well?" I asked as ten minutes after my daughter calmed down. I pictured Moe nodding as she answered, "Yes, Daddy. Here's Miss Weiss daddy! She can tell you everything."

"Maybe later darling." I told her, mindful of the time, "I should go now. Bye! Bye!"

"Bye! Daddy! Hurry back here in the US okay? I don't like it if you go to another side of the world!"

"I'm just here in North Korea. So don't worry okay? Bye." I said and ended the call. I put the phone back in my pocket and faced the waiting, confused faces of the people I had a meeting with.

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6th Saturday**

She can play well.

Was the first thing I noticed when I stayed in the house much later than necessary to hear her play. Moe's stories was intriguing. And I was quite curious if any of it were true. Glad to know that Miss Weiss was an exemplary piano player. If not, well, I have to fire her don't I? I sat down on the swiveling chair behind my desk on the library just adjacent to the music room and listened to the music that was played.

I was too engrossed on the music that when I snapped out of it I found out that I was listening to them for a hour and I was thirty minutes late for the meeting with the stockholders. I muttered curses under my breath and hurried towards the car. Being late was unforgivable. Those stockholders were like sharks when it comes to my mistakes.

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7th Saturday**

She has long hands.

Was the first thing I discovered when I saw her play the piano. The workaholic in me berated that I was having too much fun in listening to my kid's piano lessons. It also questioned why I was wasting twenty minutes of my precious time that can be well spent by earning money. The romantic reasoned I just wanted to see her. Denial quickly countered that I just wanted to make sure that my kid got quality education and to make sure that my salary was well spent.

The second thing I noticed was the diamond on her ring finger. An engagement ring to be precise. And for some bizarre reason the thought of her getting married was on my mind the whole day.


	5. Five Horrible Things

Disclaimer: I do not own. Do not sue.

A/N: **unbeta-ed. **Longer. Super angsty Reviews please.

**Serendipity**

(Kenshin's POV)

My head spin and I swayed dangerously to the tip of the stairs. I had to use both my hands to kept myself from falling. I was seeing double, no triple and it made me laugh. It was hilarious. I had to laugh some more.

I covered my mouth though as I tried to stifle my laughter when I passed my daughter's room. Moe can't see me drunk. She can't know that I'm an alcoholic..._or a smoker, or a workaholic (no, she knows about that) or about my occasional one night stand. _I'm the perfect daddy and it must remain that way. She won't ever see my flaws. Nobody should know about my flaws. Didn't my father always told me that?

As the son of a business tycoon, I must remain flawless for everybody to admire and envy. My only one unforgivable mistake was to marry someone other than Kamiya Kaoru. I suddenly stopped as I gazed at the painting on the wall. It was my one unforgivable sweet mistake: _Tomoe. _

_Why did you leave me behind?_

I gaze at her, mesmerized by her beauty. In my inebriated state I saw her painted picture frown at my thoughts. She had this thoughtful look in her eyes as she tried to think of ways to cheer me up. I saw her jumped from the painting and she touched my cheeks and kissed me full in the lips. I closed my eyes and thought how lucky I was that I have her. She then stood beside me as we looked side by side and marvel how the baby she carried for nine months grew into such a beautiful and smart kid. It was so real to me that I reached out to my side expecting to touch a solid body but instead I touched air and I fell down. There was a moment of silence when I just laid there unmoving. But the moment was soon over when I got up and laughed. I laughed all the way to my room.

It was funny. It seems to be funny. I was laughing so hard that tears fell down from my eyes. I was laughing so hard that I felt so bitter and unhappy. And as I was taking my tie off it got me thinking, I was better off as a comedian. I'm a funny person. I'm sure everyone who take a good look at me would laugh. I laugh too when I see myself in the mirror. I was too damn foolish that it was hilarious.

I threw the tie somewhere and with my hands spread wide apart, I fell to the bed. I relax as I stretch out contentedly, not even bothering to remove my shoes or my suit. And as I laid there, it got me thinking what made today so bad. What made me drink so much than my usual. What made me wish that I'll become too drunk so that I can just pass out wherever, whenever. I supposed every little miserable things that happened today contributed. But I distinctly remembered five things. Five. Horrible. Things.

* * *

**Chapter 5**

Five Horrible Things

**

* * *

**

**_Number five started out at five o'clock this morning..._**

_I stood there unmoving as I watched the paramedic carried the burnt corpse to the ambulance. _

_I wanted to shout but the words were stuck to my mouth. _

_I wanted to run but my feet were attached to the ground._

_I wanted to reached out to her but my hands won't move._

_I wanted to cry out her name but I can't because this would be real. _

_This wasn't real._

_Wasn't she with me this morning?_

_Didn't I watched her silently as she snored?_

_Didn't I impulsively kissed her in the mouth while she blissfuly slept?_

_Didn't I even berate myself for my moment of weakness?_

_She was with me this morning._

_She will be with me this afternoon._

_Wasn't I supposed to fetch her as we both go to the Christmas party together with Tomoe?_

_This wasn't her._

_This wasn't real. _

_"Kaoru!"_

_I felt myself stood rigidly as I heard Mrs. Kamiya's desperate howl. And I still stood still as she bumped me when she hurriedly run towards her daughter while shouting her name in desperate denial. _

_"Oh my god! Kaoru! Kaoru!"_

_My knees turned weak as I heard Enishi cried out her name. I saw him hurried towards the ambulance. I watched him cried as he, together with the Kamiyas' hugged the corpse. _

_"Kaoru! No! No! No! Kaoru!"_

_I heard Tomoe mutter brokenly beside me. It was a slapped to my face. _

_This was reality. _

_That corpse was BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_

BEEP!

I slammed my hand on the snooze button and it turned the alarm off.

I open my eyes to the dark and it took me a few minutes to realize where I was.

I sigh. It was just a dream.

* * *

**_Number four was when I was in the meeting room..._**

I was in a foul mood. And I refused to admit that it was because I dreamt about what happen the day of the accident.

I was in a foul mood because when I entered the meeting room I saw my dad sitting at the head of the table, looking all smug and healthy that I just want to ran over to him and kill him.

I smiled pleasantly to my father and greeted all the old geezers in the room that condemned my marriage to Tomoe, a pleasant morning. No one smiled back as expected and I went to my assigned seat wishing that this day was over. When the secretary called the meeting and my father finally had to speak I have to kept myself occupied to stop myself from interrupting him and walking out of the room.

_I was just really in a foul mood today. _

* * *

**_Number three was when I was in the park, sitting in a bench..._**

I scarfed down what's left of my hot dog and threw the wrapper in the trash can near the bench I was sitting at. I wiped my hands on my new custom made William Fioravanti pants and then continued reading the background check I asked for. _Well...tried to, _but I kept remembering the sole reason why I was here. My father was back.

He can't die can't he?

Someone tapped my back and asked, "Excuse me? Do you mind telling me what's the time mister?" I looked at my watch and saw it was eleven in the morning. I looked at the stranger to reply and my eyes widen in recognition.

"Misao." I uttered without thought. Her eyes widen confusedly and she asked hesitantly, "Um...do I know you?"

_Oh, right. _I forgot. Aoshi didn't introduce us.

"I met you in the hospital once." I pointed out politely.

She still looked confused and I added, "I saw your name in your name tag that's why I know your name." She still didn't recognize me. And she was becoming wary. _Is she thinking I'm her stalker? God_, that's funny. "I was the guy in the elevator. My father got sick."

Her eyes widen as she finally remembered who I was. She pointed at me and exclaimed, "The guy from the elevator! Wow! You have a good memory."

_It's impossible to forget the woman who made the ice block smile, _"Thank you. I heard that a lot. You look different without your nurse's uniform." And it was true. She did look different. Younger. More childish. If I didn't know any better I would have mistaken her for a high schooler skipping school.

"Yeah. People say that a lot. I do look pretty young do I? I never look old." She said. She looked at me and asked, "Is your father okay?"

I schooled my expression as to not gave way for my disdain and disappointment that the old coot hadn't died. I put on a relieved smile as I replied, "Thankfully he survived the worst. He is okay now. He is even back to work." Unfortunately.

Her eyes shone brightly at the news and she said, "Really?" She sigh with relief and added, "I'm glad. In my experience there really isn't a lot of people who came out alive in the hospital."

That made my eyebrow raised. Her grandfather's hospital was known to be the best among the best. "Really?" I doubt Aoshi would invest so much in her grandfather's hospital if it didn't live up to its reputation.

"Well...that's partly due because I work in the cancer part of the hospital." She explained somberly. And I nodded in understanding. _Why can't dear old lovable dad get cancer?_ She looked at my watch and I remembered her asking for the time. I looked at my watch again and saw it was already thirty minutes pass eleven. I looked at her and said, "It's eleven thirty."

Her eyes widen and she took my hand forcefully as she looked at the time with her own eyes. I looked on amusedly as panic settled in her face and she fished out her cellphone in her Prada bag. But she sigh with relief after she looked at something on her cellphone.

"Waiting for someone?" I asked curiously, wondering what had made her panic.

"Um...yeah." She answered absently as she looked around the park, "I have a date with my friend's fiancee."

"Your friend's fiancee?"

"Yup. My friend will introduce me to him. I met him once but not formally. So I'm a little excited to know the man my friend finally agreed to marry."

"Your very close with your friend?" I asked as it seem to be the most logical thing to do.

She nodded as she smiled happily, "Yup. I'm so happy for her. She's been through a lot and I'm hoping this guy could make her so incredibly happy."

"Well, I'm sure she's happy. They're getting married aren't they?" _Yeah right. Like marriage is a measure of happiness. My first marriage was a total hell. _"I'm sure they love each other." _Bullshit. _

"Yeah. Your right. I'm sure they are. I've never seen her this happy since she gave birth to her son."

_Son? Wow! That guy don't know what he's in for, _"She must be pretty awesome."

"She is." Misao agreed, "I mean her life's tough. I don't know much about her before she went to my grandpa's hospital. She is a very private person. She barely talks about her past. But what I did hear from Aki was that her husband died from war."

"Who's Aki?" I asked to sound interested, "Her boyfriend?"

She shook her head and it was comical to see how it shook so fast, "No! NO! NO! That would be wrong. That idiot is a womanizer. The first time I met him was when he accompanied Chris."

"Chris?" I asked stopping her monologue. _Aki's gay boyfriend?_

"My friend, the one I am talking about. So anyway he accompanied Chris when she was ready to pop out."

"Pop out?"

"Give birth." She explained exasperatedly. I nodded and I hid the smile on my face. I was enjoying the way she pouted whenever I interrupted her. She was so into her story that her every words were emphasize with a hand movement.

"So anyway as I was saying, when he accompanied Chris to the emergency room the first thing he did was to hit on the nurses or any person who has two legs and a breast. Damn Pervert." She looked at me expectantly, waiting for any interruptions but I just smiled and nodded for her to continue. She then took a deep breath and said, "Yeah, so my friend, Chris deserves happiness. Her husband died. She is a single mom on a financial crises. And on top of all that she is sick. Very, very, like having a time limit sick. She is a cystic fibrosis patient. It was unlikely for her to get pregnant. It was even unlikely for her to give birth and actually survive. And it was highly unlikely for her to be living this long. But she did all that with a smile on her face. If you meet her you will never know that she is sick. Or that she needed money a lot of times because almost everything she have was spent on her medicine. She is like my idol. She is super strong. And super kind."

"Wow." I said genuinely impressed by this Chris person and how fast Misao could speak, "Sounds like my kind of girl."

She laughed, "She is everybody's kind of girl. Wait until you meet her. You will love her." She then clapped her hand as if she has some kind of eureka moment. She faced me eagerly and said, "She'll be here today. I can introduce you to her and her fiancee."

"Wow! That'll be awesome." I said imagining this Chris person as a thin, maybe anorexic looking with pale skin, huge eye bags and sunken eyes. And her fiancee as a tall, thin, awkward geek. My imagination was in no way insulting them but it was the way my mind pictured it. As much as I was _excited _to meet them but I had to go, "I unfortunately still have a meeting to attend. This is my only alone lunch period after this is a lunch meeting together with some associate."

"Really?" Misao asked, disappointed.

"Yup."

She nodded, "It was nice to meet you."

"You too."I said as I picked up all my things from the bench. I waved goodbye to her before I would say screw work. It was when I was in the car that I changed my mind. I was still going to work but it won't hurt to look at the people that Misao had described. Sue me, but I was genuinely curious.

So I turned my car around to take a little peek of those people and sate my curiosity. I drove my car in turtle like speed before anybody would suspect that I was some kind of a creepy stalker dude. I saw Misao first. She looked awkward, alone and waiting but she instantly brighten up when she saw someone. And when I saw the guy that Misao had been waiting for, I step on the brake so hard that I hit my head on the wheel.

Enishi! _No, what are the chances? Impossible! I'm getting delusional! _But the man looked at my way, probably searching for someone and I got a clearer view of the man's face.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT! ENISHI!

My eyes widen and my thoughts ran wild but there's one that stand out: _He's over Kamiya?_

This is big, _probably none of my business _but this is big! I watched with fascination as he interacted with Misao. By the looks of it, they were still both uncomfortable at each other's presence and they were still missing one person by the way their eyes kept searching in the park. I just got to say this, he is happier than the last time I've seen him. Provided that the last time I've seen him was in Kamiya's funeral. He also changed. He looked..._he looked..._lovesick? God, the man's infatuated badly. No wonder he didn't mind marrying a girl with baggage.

My phone rung and it interrupted my stalk..._watching. _I picked up the phone, looked at the caller ID and cursed. It was my secretary probably reminding me that I still have a meeting to attend to. I put my secretary on speaker and pretended to listen as I started the car again. I was about to leave the park when I spotted the other one of Misao's date today. I spotted her back. She was not the person I thought she was. But she was still thin with long black hair and when she looked at Enishi Yukishiro it was the time I finally saw half of her face. It was to say, I almost hit another car. I heard the driver curse and my secretary, who was still on the speaker phone to promptly asked what was going on. I tuned them off. I turned the phone off and just stared. My heart rate pulsed rapidly as I watched unblinkingly the scene that unfolds before me. I never saw the woman's face properly as Enishi's big frame hid her from my view. He was kissing her and some kind of inane, can't believe I was feeling this to a stranger emotion sprung up on me.

I saw Misao gushed and I probably would be too if I was not busy wanting to shot Enishi in the head and finally looked at the woman who made my hand shake, my mouth dry, and my heart ache _or something._I probably had mention this but I was being insane. This was not the kind of feeling I was supposed to feel for a stranger. Granted she looked a lot like _good god, finally he finished kissing the woman! _

He moved away from her only for their backs to face my way as they headed on the opposite side of my direction. I cursed and I almost ran after them just to take a good look before sanity settled back in. _I need to calm down. Kenshin! Calm down! You're crazy! You can't keep remembering about her when looking at someone with black hair! It's utterly absurd and ridiculous. SHE IS DEAD!_

Still, I can't help but looked back to where Enishi and company were before and muttered absently, "Kaoru."

* * *

**_Number two was when I was in my office..._**

I settled comfortably on my chair and I lifted the papers on the table and began to read the background check I had asked for.

_Name: Jewel Christine Weiss (_**_Isn't it stupid to think that the woman I met a while ago reminded me of Kamiya Kaoru? Shouldn't I also stop thinking about the said woman. I still have a business to run and a background check to read!_**_) _

_Age: 28 _

I closed my eyes and thought, _if Kamiya didn't die then she would be at this age now. _And then realizing I was still thinking about her, I berated myself silently. _Ugh! I should really go back to reading._

_Original Place of Residence: Kentwood Louisiana (_**_But isn't it a little bit sad to think that Enishi Yukishiro is replacing Kamiya Kaoru by some look a like? And that's all the woman was Kenshin! A look a like! The real one is dead!)_**

_Mother: Lyne Irene Weiss(nee Vridges) (_**_Hmm...)_**

_Father: Joseph Anton Weiss (_**_I won't get any serious reading aren't I?)_**

I stopped reading the background check and I put down the documents on the table as I heard a knock from the door. I looked up and saw my secretary nervously looking at me. I then started to get nervous.

"What is it?"

"Sir," She started hesitantly and I looked at her stonily as I expected the worst, "Mr. Himura, your father, wants you to go to Europe this Saturday to discuss with the Union about the labor case we've got there. Mr. Himura also said that you'll open the new site to the public and become the face of the new built building in England."

_What the fuck? That isn't my fucking job! _"I can't this Saturday. Have you told Mr. Himura this?"

She nodded, "Yes sir. I told him that your book this Saturday. I even offered to reschedule everything but he said that this Saturday is a must."

I gritted my teeth as I said pleasantly, "Okay. Okay." Moe would throw a temper tantrum when she knows about this. I feel horrible already.

**_

* * *

Number one was when I was in my daughter's room..._**

"But daddy! Why can't you be in my recital this Saturday?" My little cried as she stomped her foot and folded her arms. She was angry and sad and disappointed that I felt like such a monster for doing this to her.

"Sweetheart, I have to go to another place this Saturday. I have work to do." I pleaded for her to understand but she looked at me stonily with big tears in her eyes that my heart crushed.

"WORK! WORK! WORK! WORK! ALL YOU DO IS WORK! I HATE YOU DADDY! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!" She shouted angrily as she pushed me out of her room and closed the door. I saw her nanny trying to placate her but that does not matter now. I disappointed her. My little daughter..._I am such an asshole. _

I feel like crap.

* * *

_And that's how I ended up drunk and miserable. _


	6. Megumi's Dinner Party

Serendipity

A/N: Reviews? Please? You fill out Kenshin and Kenji's favorite food.

Disclaimer: Samurai X will never be mine.

Chapter 6

Megumi's Dinner Party

_I wonder why she called?_

I looked up and saw the five star restaurant where I supposed to meet her. I closed the door of the car and languidly entered the posh establishment. A maitre'd greeted me and I politely told him of the reservation. When the maitre'd said it was a table for five, I smiled off my surprise and nodded knowingly.

_Table for five? Megumi, Sano, Aoshi...me? Who's the fifth one for? Megumi's new boyfriend? Since when did that girl introduced us to her new boyfriend?_

_'...'_

_She has a new boyfriend?_

Curious, I raised my neck upwards, tilt my head subtly to the left and right in order for me to see what's in front of the maitre'd and get a glimpse of the mysterious fifth person Megumi invited to dinner. It was so unlike Megumi to appear all of a sudden and then abruptly organized a get together dinner. I wonder what's wrong with her?

So when I saw someone familiar and it seems we were going to _their _direction, my eyebrows went up in shock and if not for the fact of the years of etiquette and decorum ingrained in my head, my mouth would have dropped. The shock wore off as fast as it came and my forehead knitted in confusion as I asked myself, _who the hell is that kid getting all chummy with my precious daughter? _The kids, together with the blond woman, were talking animatedly about something and were completely oblivious of anything else. They didn't even notice that I was near their table but I did notice that there were quite a handful of ladies looking my way. _Heh._

"What a perfect looking family." I heard the maitre'd whispered to himself and my eyes widen as the implication hit me. _Family?_

The tutor? The red head? My daughter? _Perfect Family?_

I then finally noticed that it wasn't only the maitre'd that thought that we were somewhat the perfect, quintessential family. Those ladies that I spied looking at me wasn't thinking that I was a stud, they were thinking I was the father. And it wasn't only them. The furtive glances thrown our way by almost everyone in the posh established is another proof that I wasn't hallucinating and imagining the words that the maitre'd uttered. It was clear in their eyes, especially that one kid over the corner who was looking enviously at us, that they thought of us as somewhat the perfect family picture.

I looked again to the oblivious threesome and wondered why. The tutor? The red head? My daughter? Equals family? The tutor. The red he-wait back up, what's the tutor doing here anyway? Didn't Megumi invited me to dinner? Where's the others? Where's Sano, Aoshi, the boyfriend? Where are they?

"Sir? Are you okay sir?" The maitre'd inquired politely and I snapped back to attention. I smiled and told him I'm fine. It was then that the threesome in the table finally realized that someone arrived. They all looked at me at the same time but their reaction differ..._a lot. _My daughter smiled widely as she jumped off the chair and came running towards me. She called me daddy and hugged me tightly. I stooped down and hug her back fiercely.

"Daddy? Why you here? Did Aunt Megumi invited you?" My little girl asked and instead of telling her that I've been wondering that too, I answered, "Where's your Aunt Megumi?"

"Outside. Someone called her and she looked angry." Moe answered and I nodded, curious as to what made the normally calm doctor angry. I stood up and let her hold me as she led me to my chair.

The red head kid, I often met in Tomoe's pre-school was also there. Was it Kenji or something? The boy's name? He looked pleased to see me and he slid off his chair the same time Tomoe jumped off her chair to come running towards me and followed her to where I was. It was when Moe was pulling to my designated seat that the kid spoke and held out his little hand towards me.

"I'm Kenji Weiss. Good evening sir." The little kid with the grown up attitude said and for a moment I was a little bit stunned. The kid reminded of me when I was that age: mature, confident and polite. I shook his hand and his face broke into a smile that reach up to his eyes. I held his hand a lot longer than necessarily when once again I pictured someone else in that boy. If that red hair was replaced with black and the face carved a little womanly and he was wearing a dress and then that expression would look an awful lot like the one Kamiya wore when she was happy about something. And if I remembered correctly I'm the only one who can incite that kind of expression on her. Not that I'm remembering or anything.

"Daddy?" Moe inquired and I snapped back to the present. I smiled at him warily and said, "I'm Kenshin."

"Uncle Kenshin!" Kenji said happily as he clapped his hands together. My heart warmed to see him happy and I impulsively ruffled his hair. He grinned and he grabbed my other hand and together with Tomoe pulled me to my designated seat. It was when I was seated comfortably that the maitre'd decided to tell us that the food ordered will be served. We thank him graciously and I waited for him to be gone before I went back looking to the most surprising reaction. I can hear my daughter and Kenji talking but I just nodded and smile at appropriate times as I studied the blond woman's profile.

She looked nervous and anxious as she kept looking at Kenji. _Oh, _I remember now, Moe mentioned that she was Kenji's mother. Odd. She looked like she wanted to flee together with Kenji before I can eat him. She looked so afraid that when she spoke it surprised me. She looked like she was going to faint any second.

"You! Why are you here?"

I was surprised by her question but I maintained my smile as I notice that we were accumulating a lot of audience in our little show. Maybe this time they've already realized that they were wrong. We were not a family. My daughter aside, we were all a bunch of strangers joined together by one absent woman.

"Megumi invited me." I answered, "I'm guessing Megumi asked you to come together with your son. I'm sorry if my friend bothered you because of this. She is such a strong headed person that she'll do whatever she wants when she sees fit. I hope she did not mess with you too much. I really didn't know that she went to my house directly after she arrived. She's not usually this spontaneous."

"Ah...ah" Miss Weis muttered as she fidgeted uncomfortably in her sit. I turned to looked at the children who were still chatting with each other and asked, "When did your Aunt Megumi arrived Tomoe?"

"After you left for office daddy. She was in a hurry and she was crying and she spent a lot of her time talking to everyone she sees in the house. When me and Miss Weiss were practicing she kept on crying because she said that the music reminded her of...something. I really don't know what it was because I didn't hear what she whispered to Miss Weiss. After that she persuaded Miss Weiss to come with us and call Kenji too so that he could eat with us. Right Kenji?"

"Right! Right!" Kenji nodded enthusiastically and I noticed Miss Weis' hand grasped the wrist of her kid just below the table so that I couldn't see but unknown to her there was a mirror behind her that reflected her every action. And more so now, she looked like she was going to run away and flee together with her son. _Something is wrong with this woman._

"Am I making you nervous?" I asked curiously and her eyes snapped back towards me. And for a brief moment I saw anger and hatred and fear in those eyes that I wondered if the lights were playing tricks on me.

"No!" She answered too forcefully, her face pale and her feet ready to run. The kids' stopped talking and we all looked at her curiously.

"Mom?" Kenji asked worriedly, "Are you okay?"

Miss Weiss looked at her son blankly for a moment before she regained composure and smiled. She pat her son's hand and answered, "Of course. I'm sorry it's just weird having dinner with your boss. Me - Miss Megumi said that you were too busy to come and her other friends were up to their usual workaholic selves that's why she for-invited us to eat dinner with her lones-lovely self."

_Ahh. _"Good. Please don't be nervous Miss Weiss. Treat me as a friend." I said cheerfully and she looked blankly at me before she smiled and said, "Yes, sir."

"Don't be formal. You can call me Kenshin when you're not working."

"Ah...no. I'm more comfortable calling you sir." She said as she smiled uncomfortably. She looked around us and muttered, "What took Miss Megumi so long?"

I looked around too and found Megumi outside, talking heatedly in the phone. Megumi looked stressed and angry just like she always was when it comes to Sano. I looked back at the anxious tutor and said, "She's probably talking with her boyfriend. She'll be back soon."

Miss Weiss looked taken back as she stated, "But she said that she has no boyfriend."

"She don't. But her and Sano goes way back. They're like the married couple in my circle of friends. They're really fun to watch. They kept running around in circles because they both hated to get hurt. Sano stopped wanting to have a normal relationship and Megumi is afraid that she can't replace the dead girl Sano loved that's why she is afraid to try. But they really love each other. If they put down their guard, they're actually very sweet to each other." I explained to her, "And both of them even at their worst would really come to the rescue when a friend needed it. Even if they hated each other at that time, they will cooperate just to help a friend."

She smiled wistfully as she stared at Megumi and said, "It must be nice to have friends like them."

"Yeah, I'm very lucky. If you want I could introduce you to my friends. We both could watch them and entertain ourselves with their amusing bickering." I said shocking both of us. Fortunately, despite my unusual offer I kept my cool and said, "I...if you have time that is."

"That'll be weird." She finally answered and before I could react the waiter arrived and told us that the food was served. I looked at the scrumptious meal and I felt my mouth water and my stomach grumbled in anticipation. The food served smelled wonderful and half of it were my favorite that when the waiter left and after I helped Moe on her food, I immediately dig in and savored the first bite I took. It was Kenji that aptly described my feelings when he told everyone in the table that the food was delicious and I looked over to him and noticed the pile on his plate was the same was mine. Curious I asked, "You like those?"

"Like them?" Kenji said, "I LOVE them! These are my favorites! When my mom is not sick, she always cook some of this food for me. She said that she used to cook it for my dad."

"Kenji!" Miss Weiss interrupted shrilly. I noticed that she tightly clutched her hand until her knuckles turned white. Then she looked at me and apologized, "I'm sorry, my son can be very talkative at times."

"Don't worry about it." I said amusedly, "It's all right."

"You like the same food as daddy." Moe commented and for the first time Kenji noticed and he looked over my plate and his eyes shone as he exclaimed, "Wow! We like the same things Uncle Kenshin!"

"SIR!" Miss Weiss interrupted panicky, "Call Mr. Himura sir, Kenji dear. She's mommy's boss."

"I'm sorry Mr. Himura, sir."

I laughed heartily and I looked at him and said, "It's okay Kenji, you can call me Uncle. I don't like being called sir anyway." I then looked at Miss Weis amusedly as I tried to pacify her, "It's okay Miss Weiss. It's okay for your son not to call me sir. Don't worry about it."

"I don't like it." I heard her murmur softly to herself and when she turned to looked at me a smile was on her face as she blatantly lied, "That's nice of you Mr. Himura, sir."

_So now the sir has Mr. Himura too. _But I was too curious at her son to pay any heed to her odd resentment of me. I turned my attention back to Kenji as I asked, "How old are you Kenji?"

"I just turn six years old!" Kenji answered proudly, "I'll be in grade school soon. And I'll be a big man like my soon to be daddy."

My smile faltered as I heard this and I remembered the engagement ring on Miss Weiss' finger. My eyes glanced down on her fingers and there proudly stood the handsomely made engagement ring. She noticed me looking and she pulled back her hand and obscured the expensive little thing from my view. I was about to asked her who was the lucky bastard when she said, "Tomoe is doing well in her piano."

If I didn't know any better I would have thought that she was trying to change the subject. But she was my daughter's tutor and it was imperative for her to care for my daughter and dictate me of my daughter's improvement.

"Yeah daddy." Tomoe butted in, "My teacher told me that I improved a lot. She even said that I'll be part of the piano recital! Miss Weiss is really a great tutor daddy!"

I smiled and said, "That's great darling. How about having a little concert of your own with me as your audience?"

She beamed happily and she grabbed Kenji's shoulder and said, "And Miss Weiss will also be there right daddy? And Kenji too! Kenji is very good at piano. He is the star in our next piano recital! Right Kenji!"

The little boy puffed out his chest proudly as exclaimed, "Of course! My mom is the best teacher in the world! And my soon to be daddy is teaching me a music piece that I'll use for the piano recital! I could have a duet with you Tomoe! You're not in my level yet but I'm sure mommy could work something out so that we could give Uncle Kenshin a great performance. And also can my soon to be daddy there? I promise you Uncle that my soon to be daddy is very great! You will really, really, really like him!"

I laughed as I pictured the two little gifted children playing piano side by side. It will probably create a wonderful music concerto. This reminds of that time when I was little when I was teaching the crybaby Kamiya how to play the piano. We were practicing twinkle twinkle little star and it had taken her a month to master it. But it was worth it, the flushing on her cheeks and the wide smile on her face as she proudly told me to sit down and prepare to hear the greatest music I would ever hear. After that we had presented it to our parents, well at that time my mother was still sane and my father and her mother was secretly banging somewhere in the house still unknown to me.

"But Mom!"

"WHY Miss Weiss?"

I snapped back to the present at the whining of both children. I looked confusedly at them and to the person they were whining at and saw Miss Weiss harden expression. She looked resolute and firm on whatever decision she had said while I was out of it. I stayed silent as I watched the drama unfold before me.

"We can't."Miss Weiss said placatingly to her son, "I'm sorry darling but your mom is very busy and so is your uncle...Ishi."

I noticed that she hesitated to mention her fiancee. I wonder why.

"Please Miss Weiss!" Moe pleaded in her most pleading voice. My heartstrings were touched like it always was when Moe was this cute and convincing. But it had no effect to Miss Weiss whatsoever and it seems that it harden her resolve.

"No, I'm sorry Tomoe but you have to play the piano alone with your dad." Miss Weiss said and as she saw the child almost to tears she scooted closer to them and said consolingly, "It's better this way Tomoe , you can show your daddy what great player you had become. I'm sure that's much, much better. And didn't you always told me that you don't have so much time to spend with your dad? Why not use this opportunity to bond with him? Me and Kenji would just be a bother. Right sir?"

Miss Weiss looked at me intensely and the two children looked at me expectantly as if wanting me to be by their side and I found myself trap. I'd like to agree with the children but Miss Weiss stare was cold and hard and as intriguing as it was I have to say, "Miss Weiss is right Moe. And it's better this way right? We can spend our time together." It was the right thing to do as a boss.

I heard Miss Weiss sighed with relief and it me made more curious at her hidden albeit in a poor attempt, dislike of me. No woman I met with had dislike me so much that despite the warning bells in my head to distanced from this woman, I was enraptured by my curiosity and it made me want to know more. She noticed me staring at her and she avoided eye contact as she pretended to looked impatiently for Megumi's whereabouts. I smiled to myself and went back to eating.

"Daddy?" Moe asked, pulling the sleeves of my shirt. I looked at her and asked, "Yes, darling?"

"Will you be there for my piano recital?"

"When will it be?" I asked as I took a bite from my food.

"The end of January." Moe said excitedly and I gulped down the food the wrong way as I heard the date. I almost choked if not for the water that the tutor immediately gave me. I stared at my kid, paling as the thought of turning her down went over my brain. I had an important meeting that day with stockholders from Japan and it's very crucial for the company. I just can't leave it all behind. It was a responsibility.

"I will also be part of the show. My mommy and soon to be daddy will also be there!" Kenji shared excitedly, "My soon to be daddy said that he would take his video camera and record the whole thing!"

"My daddy will bring professionals to record the whole event!" Moe bragged oblivious to what I was feeling at that moment. Moe turned to looked at me and happily said, "Right daddy?"

And before I could answer, Megumi had returned saving me from publicly turning down my daughter. I got the water and drunk it all up as I pretended to listen to Megumi's monologue. The disapproving look in Miss Weiss' face was engraved in my memory.

* * *

I paced in the hallway as I tried to frame the way I would apologized to my daughter. I had broken the news to her after we had arrived home and it had took a lot of cajoling from her nanny to stopped her from crying and throwing a tantrum. It made me so guilty that I almost called my secretary to cancel the meeting. Unfortunately my common sense returned and it stopped me from doing something irresponsible.

"What?" A somber voice asked snapping me back to attention. I turned around and I smiled guiltily as I found my daughter in the doorway of her room with her arms crossing over her chest and her mouth set into a frown.

"Darling." I started and she stared at me coldly as she waited for me to continue. I cleared my throat and continued, "Can we talk?"

She looked at me pensively as she weighted her decision on her mind. And truthfully it was the most terrible wait I had experience in my whole life, not counting the time I had waited for Tomoe Yukishiro to say yes and be mine.

"Ok."

I let go of the breath I was holding and I smiled as I followed her in her room. Moe sat in her bed and I followed suit. I open my arms and said, "Come her darling." She followed timidly and sat on my lap.

"I'm sorry I can't come to your piano recital darling. You know how important daddy's job right?"

"More important than me?"

I shook my head emphatically as I hugged her tightly and said clearly, "I love you more than anything in the world darling. But daddy has responsibilities and if I don't do them then I'll disappoint millions of people. You know how many people work for daddy right?"

"Many, many people?"

"Yes. And if I don't do my responsibilities then there's a possibility that the many, many people that work for daddy will lose their job and that would make many people sad."

She nodded as she mulled this over in her cute little head. She looked up to me and earnestly asked, "You're going to the meeting then?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry. You know I love you right?"

She didn't answer but she jumped off my lap and face me and said, "You know what this means right daddy?"

I looked at her confused but she continued with her hands moving for emphasis, "You need to videotaped my performance! And we can see the taped performance together! Is that a deal?"

I broke into a smile and I stood up and hug my favorite little girl, "Of course darling. Don't worry I'll hire professionals to taped your performance. I bet it's the most wonderful performance in the whole show."

"I love you daddy."

"Love you too darling."


	7. Zombie

**Serendipity**

A/N: Hit the review button and tell me your thoughts. It's very long and very long so I hope you review for my hard work? PLEase? Please? Cough, let's get on with it. Tell and criticize and I'll change. Forget what I've written before. Read the story as you read ch.1 to this ch. so that you won't get confuse.

**Chapter 7:** Zombie

* * *

_**Kenshin**_

My eyes hurt and my head ache and the sound of the television became a buzzing sound in my ears. I should probably sleep. It was in the middle of the night and I had a full schedule tomorrow...I looked at the clock and sigh, _no, make that today. But..._I drank the beer and my right hand reached for the remote and repeated the mechanical motion I had been doing for the past three hours..._I'll sleep after this. _

Rewind a little bit.

_Maybe I was just tired that I'm starting to imagine things._

Pause or I might miss it.

_Or maybe it was just the guilt that made me see a ghost._

Forward a little bit.

_Or maybe I was just going crazy._

Then pause to the woman whose smile was briefly captured in my little girl's camera crew.

But whatever the reason, the woman in the video from Moe's recital was definitely her twin. She was the same height, the same black hair, the length though was shorter and it was balding in the middle and she was thinner and more frail but the face that was accidentally captured in the camera was the mirror image of the woman I knew. She looked older and her smile was different. It was not pained, it was not pretend. It was..._real. _It was_ happy. _Suddenly it inexplicably infuriated me.

I grabbed another bottle of beer as I ignored the mentally crazy taunting of my seriously, in deep shit drunk conscience: _look at that, she looks happy and you're not!_

_Fuck_

No matter the minute difference, she looked like the woman I once knew. She looked like the woman I once hated. She looked like the woman who _died. _She looked like Kaoru Kamiya - a frail and happy Kaoru Kamiya. A look a like that made me inexplicably angry and fucking sad at the same time.

When I'm sober, I'll laughed off my crazy obsession with a look alike and joke to myself that I've probably gone mental for thinking that every woman I see that looked like her was Kaoru Kamiya coming back alive a la zombie like._ But for now_, I grabbed another bottle of beer and repeated the mechanical motion, once again promising to sleep after this one last look.

* * *

**_Aoshi_**

I've known Kenshin Himura for half my life and I've never seen him looked _dead. _

"Kenshin." He looked up at the sound of my voice and it took a minute for familiarity to replaced that blank looked in his eyes. His demeanor instantly shifted and the zombie workaholic changed into a bright, preppy businessman. He smiled and said, "Aoshi! Sit down Sit down! What do you want? Scotch? Juice? Tea? Water?"

I said no and we both settled down in our seats. He looked at me expectantly and brightly, contrasting hugely to the dark eye bags that made his eyes cold and the stiff and the pretentious smile that made him looked uncaring. He was Kenshin the businessman, not Kenshin the friend and it made me pity the poor suckers that always faced the former. This kind of Kenshin drains the energy out of you.

"Busy night?" I can't helped but asked. It took a while for him to register my words and when it did he frowned for a second and then cover it with a laugh as he replied, "Yeah."

As an afterthought he added, "I spent it with a girl."

I raised my eyebrows and because of curiosity I thoughtlessly asked, "With the tutor?"

His brows knitted and I immediately realized my mistake.

"Why do you think I spent the night with the tutor?"

My eyes shifted sideways, unable to bear his curious gaze. _The tutor, well, she's a secret that I forced Sano to admit. __I can't admit it because I promised Sano and well, the tutor has this new and different life and if not for me, won't intersect yours and it won't even intersect mine if not for that stupid meeting with Kashiwazaki Nenji in his hospital and if not for the sudden urge to help her because she looks like my dead friend and if not for the lot and lot and waste of money lot of digging I did because of the sudden urge to help her and if not because of that little kid with the red hair that I trick to get his DNA tested and if not for Sano squealing, I will not know the tutor deeply and I might not have kicked and threaten Sano, _and that should what I should say_. _Then, I remembered what Misao had said after watching 'The Nanny' and I found an excuse not to, "Just like in the shows. The widowed boss fell in love with the nanny he hired for his hyperactive kids. You watch The Nanny?"

He still looked confused as he asked, "You watch The Nanny?"

I smiled guilt hidden as Misao's sweet face drifted to memory and I said, "You watched that too? I watched it with Misao. At first I find the voice of the nanny to be grating on the nerves but it got endearing after a while."

"You watched a show like that?" He asked bemused, a grin in his lips. It was my turned to looked at him confusedly as I asked, "What's wrong with watching that?"

He shook his head as his grinned grew wider, "Nothing. Nothing. I just don't penned you to be that kind of guy that watch that kind of show."

A little insulted I asked, "What's wrong with me watching it?"

"Nothing! NOTHING!" Kenshin clarified, "It's just that the best friend I knew was not exactly a big fan of television since you once claim that it was too noisy. You're more of the meditation type of guy. Remember when we were in college when I invited you to watch baseball with me, you said no because you're too busy meditating and drinking tea? It's just hearing you watching the Nanny surprises me that's all. And for the record I don't watch it and it's the first time I've heard of it."

"Oh." I muttered for the lack of better words to reply. And then a thought occurred to me, "I was like that?"

He shrugged, "That's the way I saw you. So what made you come here?"

Oh right, "I want you to formally meet my girlfriend. There's a little get together at six in the evening in my house. We decided it's time to meet our respective friends. I'll meet hers and she'll meet mine. Bring Moe too, I'm sure she would be excited to meet the others."

He grinned and asked, "So, I'll formally meet your future wife huh?"

"Dude, she is still my girlfriend."

"It's kind of obvious that your crazy for her. Look! Look! Your even blushing! Man, Aoshi I never thought you could even blush!"

I felt myself smiling as Misao's face crossed my mind.

"Wait! Wait!" Kenshin said as his hands waved around to get my attention, "Is that the reason Megumi is here?"

That's news, "Megumi is here? I thought her plane would arrive today. She told me yesterday when I called her."

"No. She is staying in my house." He said and my eyebrows knitted in confusion. I was pondering why Megumi had lied when Kenshin exclaimed, "Did Sano and Megumi fought? She always get like that when the two of them had a misunderstanding."

"Sometimes, I just wish that those two would just fuck each other. They need it badly."

"But you have to agree, it's fun to watch them get each other's attention." Kenshin added and I nodded in agreement. I looked at my watch and grimaced at the time.

"Sorry to cut this visit short but I have to go."

"Your meeting with your girl?" Kenshin teased and I must have blushed because he was laughing as he said, "Aoshi, dude, marry the girl."

"I'll keep that in mind." I said smiling, "I have to go. It's nice meeting you. And Kenshin, dear, keep the nightly activities down. Or if you can't do that then please remember to sleep. You look like a zombie drone."

He was surprised but covered it with a smile and said, "I'll keep that in mind."

"Good." I said, not thoroughly convinced. Something tells me that this girl he was seeing was different to the whores he used now and then.

* * *

**_Sano_**

"Where's Kenji?" I asked as I looked around for the little squirt that usually coerced me into telling him stories about his supposedly dead American soldier daddy. It's kind of lonely without his constant yapping.

"School." The woman with the blond hair answered and I took the coffee that she offered and put it in the side table after taking a sip. I pushed the wheelchair so I'll be next to her and asked curiously to the big question that led me here, "So who is this mysterious fiancee of yours?"

She grinned and replied, "Secret."

"Aw c'mon!" I whined, "Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! I'm dying to know!"

"Why? I thought you said my that my life is none of your business."

"Yes but any one would be curious to know who is the crazy man that wanted to marry a woman with a lot of baggage."

"I don't have a lot of baggage." She said indignantly. I laughed and said, "You have a child from a previous marriage, your husband supposedly is dead when in truth he is alive and kicking, you've almost died and your terminally ill. Honey, that's a lot of baggage."

"If you put it that way," She said thoughtfully, "but Sano he is really a wonderful man. He is sweet and kind and Kenji likes him. He also treats Kenji like his own son. That's all that matters."

My reply was stuck to my throat when I noticed her smile at the mention of her fiancee. I felt relieved that she found someone that she can love and can love her back. She looks happy and I'm thankful that the expensive, emotionally draining mess we've gotten into was all worth it. I then noticed the engagement ring in her finger as it sparkled when it hit the sun and I can't help but comment, "Rich guy?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Your ring in your finger may look understated but I've been to many jewelry store to know the price. Why that little piece of jewelry looks like it cost a million dollars."

She looked at the engagement ring in her finger and said, "Really? But it looks beautiful don't you think? Just like the man who gave this to me. Beautiful inside and out."

"At least he is a man who could help pay your medical fees. You know you being stubborn about our help is really annoying." I told her, opening one of the sore topics that arisen when we started this facade. This annoying woman was too stubborn to asked for any help from her friends.

"Sano, you paid for my medical fees when I was half dead in a hospital somewhere in Japan after the accident. Akira paid for my passport, for my new ID's, for my fake name, and for the house that I've live in here. Kamatari used a lot of her connections and money to get me into the hospital here in the US that's best known for it's treatment especially my illness. You also put a lot of work in getting me a job while I was here. Akira paid a lot of money to erase my past. Kamatari spent a lot of her time taking care of me while I was pregnant. The least I could do was to pay for my medical fees which of course half of it was already been paid for by Kamatari and you after I specifically told you I can do it and not to mention the three of you paid for the medical fees for the birth of my son. Not to mention how you enrolled Kenji in a private school against my wish to enroll him in a public school to save money. You, Akira and Kamatari is paying a lot of money for his tuition. It's not that I'm not thankful, I am very thankful but Sano, I can't be a burden to you forever. I still feel guilty for that accident that took away your legs and almost my life."

"Don't." I said in a low voice as I looked away from her guilt ridden face. Again, I explained this never ending explanation, "That accident was no one's fault. The other driver was drunk with his wife that was conveniently burned into crisp."

She was momentarily silent as she played with her ring. Softly she said, "I'm sorry for not helping you. I heard from Kamatari everything that happened."

"You can't help me even if you wanted to. You were comatose for almost a year in a hospital somewhere in Japan and after you've gotten well you went here and almost kick the bucket when that terminal illness of yours started up."

She looked at me and opened her mouth to say something and closed it again. We were silent once again and was broken when she said strongly, "What I am saying is that, stop helping me Sano. I am grateful but I can do this. I am an independent woman. I can afford to live my own life without burdening my friends."

I had a feeling it was not what she wanted to say but thankful nonetheless for keeping her mouth shut about the suicides I attempted after the accident. I pushed the wheelchair to get the coffee I left in the side table, ignoring the pained looked that passed in her eyes. I took a sip, wishing she offered me alcohol instead. I smiled at her and said, "I love helping you since I am bored and have nothing to do with the money. Thank you would be enough. I would accept a thank you. I know your living expenses. It's a lot. Even though half of your medical fees is already paid but since your new name don't have insurance, half of the unpaid medical fees is still a lot. You also have to pay your bills. Buy your medicine. And your the one paying when Kenji gets sick. You have a job but your cushy jobs often times don't last because you are too sick to work. You got it hard and I for one won't hesitate to help you. Plus, I love Kenji to death. I'll give him anything he asked for. The same for Akira and for Kamatari...I think."

She shook her head and smiled, "No, Kamatari thinks of Kenji like his own son. That guy really wanted a child of his own. I told him to apply for adoption but he insisted he wanted it the natural way. Fat chance. His natural way means having orgies with guys. I have this feeling he is just waiting for me to be die so that he could claim Kenji as his own."

"Nah, Kamatari is not that cruel." I said in his defense but then I think back at those times he tried to crawl in my bed or the time he laughed like a maniac, or that time of the accident when he planned this whole setup spontaneously after Kaoru Kamiya accidentally was sent to another hospital, far away from mine and then I realized maybe she was right, "Yeah, Kamatari's crazy."

We sat there in silence as we reminisced the craziness that was Kamatari. The trip to memory lane was only disrupted by a little cough and a question, "So, Sano?"

"Yes Kaoru?"

"Christine." She corrected immediately.

"Christine." I repeated the name repeatedly in my head. I looked at her and asked, "Man, that name is so typical. Who came up with it anyway?"

"Christine was Akira's fling at that time. Weiss was Kamatari's masseuse who he fucks on the daily basis. So they think it was a brilliant idea to put the two names together. Christine Weiss was born." She answered and I almost spit out the coffee. I forced it to go down and laughed loudly at her expression. She grimaced and said, "Not that funny. So Sano."

"Yes?"

"How's your love life? You stopped having a threesome? Since you know you've become crippled and all." She said bluntly and I may be dense but this has been another sore spot of the conversation that always came up when I met her and I know where this is going into.

"No." I said firmly.

"You don't have a love life?" She asked innocently and Kami, I'm reminded of Kenshin and his stubbornness. Which of course was inherited by their one and only kid. Man that kid was immovable as a rock when he want something.

"Yes. Megumi and I are not together. And again, our fights are not because of the sexual tension. She hates me, I hate her. Simple as that."

"Your so defensive." She said, "I did not even asked about Megumi. I genuinely cared about your love life since mine is obviously going great."

"Kaoru. Kaoru. Kaoru."

"Christine." She corrected immediately.

"Kaoru," I said ignoring her, "if you really cared to know my love life then let me tell you, it is going great. With my defective legs I could easily get a woman and I don't even make an effort. My legs don't work but my equipment is still working perfectly fine and it's usually my women who makes an effort in making me happy and satisfied. That's that information satisfy you?"

"You disgusting pig. I don't know why you don't see that the woman that's perfect for you is by your side. Megumi cares for you! Why are you taking her for granted? And she keeps talking about you!"

I might have retorted about Megumi liking me but I was too engrossed on the last sentence she uttered. Curiously and carefully I asked, "How would you know she keeps talking about me? Megumi's in Japan. You don't talk to Megumi. Megumi thinks your dead. How do you know she keeps talking about me?"

"Ah...eh...um..." She fidgeted as she looked around the room and not quite meeting my eyes and said, "Intuition?"

Intuition my ass. Last week Megumi had called and told me angrily that she was staying at Kenshin. She still hates me for what I did and find me unforgivable but she still lets me know where she was in case I needed her. Damn, maybe our friends were right. We do have a complicated relationship.

"I heard you got a new job?" I asked instead and I saw her sigh with relief. The little demon inside of me that agreed to Aoshi's bet was excited to see her reaction.

"Yes. I'm tutoring this kid in piano."

"That's nice." I said and genuinely meaning it. After all it is ironic that the person that taught Moe how to play the piano was the person that Kenshin first taught how to play it in order for her to stop crying. I wanted to laugh but instead asked an important question, "The pay is good?"

"Very generous." She said and I waited for her to continue but she said no more. This girl was pretty tight lipped if she wanted to be.

"Kamatari wanted to know if the husband is handsome." I asked using Kamatari's name in vain. I could just imagine the man beating me to a pulp if he knew my agreement to Aoshi's bet.

"He is ugly." She answered automatically, "And fat. Workaholic. And just plain ugly."

"Really?" I asked, picturing Kenshin Himura the way that she described. It took a lot of my etiquette training for me to hold my laughter. Coughing to mask my laugh I added, "How about the wife? Fat and ugly too?"

"No, she's beautiful." She answered wistfully.

I agree but this woman sure was bias. "She is a gold digger then?"

"Why would she be a gold digger?" She asked aghast and really, _she is just making this more complicated. _Why not just say that Tomoe was a home wrecker bitch? She is dead anyway. Ugh. Forgive me Tomoe, I'm a little bias. I have a bet to win.

"Husband is rich, ugly and fat. Only gold diggers go for those kinds. Maybe I could swing by your work place and introduce myself to this MILF?" I said, grinning at her expression. She looked at me disgusted and said, "For things I could not fathom, the woman loves that disgusting, ugly man. So you have no chance Sano. You don't have a chance even if you tried every technique on the book."

_Let's not forget about the fact that wifey is also dead, _"Must be love then. You do crazy things when your in love."

She nodded as she looked at her watch and said, changing the subject, "My friend is coming."

"That shorty?" I asked remembering the kid looking nurse in the hospital.

"Her name is Misao. She invited me and Yahiko to go to her boyfriend's place. There's a little get together between friends. She is coming early to give me the dress she borrowed from a friend. She is busy so she only have this morning to give the dress to me. Come this afternoon, she'll have to go to her fiancee's place to prepare everything."

"You need a ride?" I asked her. She looked at me for a minute and asked sarcastically, "You can drive?"

"My driver can."

"My fiancee's coming with us. He'll drive."

"How about Kenji?"

"I asked my usual babysitter to look after him. You know he needs to study for school tomorrow. So unfortunately my little darling can't come." She explained while pushing my wheelchair towards the door.

"Go! Hurry up in pushing me away. It hurts knowing you don't love me anymore." I said dryly and she laughed as she kissed my cheeks. I looked at her thoughtfully and said, "Christine Weiss, if Akira and Kamatari's threat didn't scare me so much I might have tried to woo you."

She only laughed harder at the statement and I touch the tip of her blonde wig lightly and jokingly I said, "Your beautiful. Believe me I would have make you mine if I have the chance."

She opened the door and waved to my driver to come and get me. She then looked at me and said, "You won't Sano. Even if I am the one crawling in your bed, you still wouldn't go for me."

"Why is that?" I asked indignantly, "Is it because your ex-husband is my best friend?"

"No." She said her face darkening, "I thought we agreed not to talk about the past?"

Oops. "Sorry." I apologized sincerely as I lightly touched her cheeks and then asked, "So why?"

"Because your stupid enough to attempt suicide to go to the other side in order to join Sayo."

Now she sounded like Megumi. Tsk.

* * *

_**Megumi**_

"You're here early." Aoshi said as he caught me tasting the cake his fiancee baked.

"I want to see your super secret fiancee." I said and he smirked this awfully knowing smirked that I wanted to bash his head in the trash bin.

"You just want to see Sano."

_Bullseye_.

"No." I responded immediately, unconvincingly and he grinned that infuriating knowing grin that it made me want to defend myself, "I'm a doctor. He's crippled. I want to see if he's up to he's old ways."

I saw Aoshi's face darken and I stopped talking and I wanted to smack my head for the careless comment. Sano's old ways was essentially a taboo topic amongst us. It was painful to discuss especially since it had taken us a long time to get over our depression to actually realized that Sano was cutting himself and hanging and poisoning and I could go on and on but thing was, we almost lost him and it was such a bad time. This kind of trait, fooling ourselves that there was nothing going on, what made us close friends to each other. I, for one like to pretend I had no problem and that everything was better in the world. If not for that kind of trait I would have murdered Sano myself for what he had done. The thought of abandoning life was something I can't comprehend. My family died because they were murdered. Sano taking his life away was unthinkable and it made me so mad that it made me want to pretend it did not happen.

"Sano?" Aoshi's pretty and petite girlfriend asked, breaking the awkward silence. I looked at her and my eyebrows raised as I asked, "You know him?"

Her face crunched up in concentration and I just want to hug her because she was too cute and short. I looked at Aoshi and I saw the glazed happiness that I often see in Kenshin's expression whenever he saw Tomoe and I rolled my eyes as I found myself watching another love thing.

"His name sound familiar." Misao finally said and then she shrugged it off as she added, "Must be one of my patients."

"This cakes delicious, by the way." I said, swiping an icing on the cake. Aoshi slapped my hand away from the food and said, "That's dirty."

"I'm a doctor, I don't do germs." I countered and I stuck my tongue at him.

Misao smiled and said, "You really great friends. Aoshi told me a lot about you guys."

"Really?" I asked as I imagined a talkative Aoshi. God, that must be a hoot, "I hope he only told you about the good things."

"He did. He also said you have this," but she was cut off by Aoshi's hand as he frantically said, "No, don't tell her that. She does not know it."

Aoshi looked totally funny and out of character but that's a new side of him to dwell on in another day. What he said though made me curious and I asked, "Know what?"

He smiled and it made me suspicious so I asked (pestered), "Know what?"

Misao looked at his fiancee and he looked at her and they had this silent eye conversation that I totally loath because how can you converse by just looking at each other?

"Know what?" I asked (pestered) again and he finally let go of his hand in her mouth and she answered, "He told me you have this motherly hen relationship with your friends."

I did? "I'm not motherly. I care because I know I'm a doctor. It's inherently in me. You're a nurse. You know the feeling of instantly caring."

Misao nodded and I heard Aoshi muttered, 'I love this woman' before he got out of the kitchen. I watched his departing back before I pounced on his tiny girlfriend and asked, "So how did you and the ice cube met?"

"Ice cube?" She asked, barely containing her grin. I laughed and said, "He was the silent, brooding type. Often talk, hobby was meditating, no girlfriends that I know of and the girls that confessed to him and been dumped called him an ice cube. A friend of mine once said that she thought Aoshi was gay and had the hots for her husband."

She laughed, that unrestrained, loud laugh that made me realize why Aoshi was in love with this woman. She was different from the girls that circulated the upper class.

"Look whose here." Aoshi said, cutting off our conversation. We turned to him and he grinned that infuriating grinned of his at my way and he smiled that prize winning smile at his girlfriend. He closed the gap between them and I finally see the man behind his back. Oblivious to the two at my side kissing, I watched with bated breath as the man behind Aoshi stepped inside the kitchen. He looked smug and horribly I wondered how long my self control last before I start another fight. His smug smile alone can made my stomach do flip flops and I hated the lost of control.

"You're here early." He commented when seeing me.

"I want to meet Aoshi's fiancee." I said then added unnecessarily, "And Kenshin still has to pick up Moe so I went here early. It's tiring to wait for him."

"Speaking of fiancee," He said, turning his attention back to Aoshi, "Where's the pretty, sexy lady dude?"

He looked at Aoshi's side and asked, "Who's that kid? Don't tell me that belong to your fiancee?"

I scoffed, _typical Sano._

"Oh." Aoshi finally realized he was not alone with his fiancee. He looked at Sano and pushed his fiancee forward with his arm on her shoulder and said, "Misao this is Sano. Sano this is Misao."

"Sano. Sano." Misao uttered softly as she looked at the wheelchair bound young man. Her eyes widen the same time as his. Her smile widen as she said, "That's why your name's familiar. Your my friend's friend."

I looked at Sano and I almost giggled at the ridiculous look on his face. He looked like a fish as his mouth opened and closed probably in shock. Aoshi's girlfriend do look like a kid. Different from the type of girlfriend I imagined he would like.

"Your friend's friend?" I heard Aoshi asked, "You know each other?"

Sano's face paled and instantly I worriedly thought that he was sick. It was a sheer force of will to stop myself from reaching out and I curled my hands in my sides as I shifted my attention back to Aoshi and his fiancee.

She shook her head and said, "No. I only met him once. But this is great. You know my friend Chris and I'm sure you'll get along with Yahiko and Chris' fiancee."

"This is great Sano." Aoshi exclaimed, his eyes brighten in anticipation, "Since you know Misao's friends then you can help introduce them to our friends."

"This is," He started, his face contorted into horror, "just fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck."

"Sano, language." I admonished out of habit. He ignored me and grabbed Aoshi's armed as he wheeled himself out of the room. Before they were completely out of our sight, I heard Sano say, "This is crap. A fucking mess!"

I looked at Aoshi's fiancee and I spoke out the question that was clearly in her eyes, "What was that all about?"

* * *

_**Kaoru**_

I can hear my heart beating and my palms sweating as I saw the imposing walls of Fairy Tots preschool. Yup, it's confirmed, old and aging and I'm still afraid of schools.

_Oh please, you're just afraid of the person you will meet. _

I scoffed, _who was afraid? _I'm not. I'm cool and unaffected.

_Oh right. Maybe you should, you know, stop looking around for him, just to, you know, prove your point?_

Ridiculous. I'm looking for my kid.

I looked at my watch just to prove myself wrong and thought, _see? It's fifteen minutes after dismissal. He should be out any moment now. _

_Right. The same red head. I really thought you were searching for that another red head you know. Since you know, I am you and this might sound that your mentally crazy which I am not but honey your kinda talking in your head, wait our head. So I should know whose red head you were looking for. It's not your son. Admit it._

Fine! I admit, the other red head gave me nightmares and I planned to avoid that nightmare.

"Are you okay?"

_Jesus! _I clutched my heart as it tried to jumped around my ribcage out of surprised. I looked at my uninvited intruder and my stomach did this thing that made me want to defecate.

"Are you okay Miss tutor?"

God's a devil. No mercy for me.

"Are you okay?" He repeated again this time his hand moving to touch me but I jumped away before he could. I put on a fake smile and said, "Good afternoon sir. Your here early."

He smiled and it dawned on me that I was talking to the businessman Kenshin and it made me glad. Friendly Kenshin give me the hives. Businessman Kenshin I can handle perfectly well.

"I have an appointment." He said. And in an obvious attempt for polite conversation he asked again, "Are you okay Miss. Weiss?"

Kenshin Himura was a prick. His words seemed to care but his expression was cold and uncaring. He looked like shit up close too. Did he got drunk and did not sleep last night?

"Healthier than ever." I looked away and superstitiously looked in the window of one of the classroom to see if my wig was in the proper place. I grimaced when I saw our close proximity in the mirror and I moved sideways in a failed attempt not to be obvious. If he noticed he did not comment but he looked amused.

I should really escape. "Don't you think the children's getting out late? I should really ask the teacher where they are." I said and almost scurried away if not for the hand that held my arm firmly that made me stopped from my tracks.

"I see them." He said letting go as he waved get his daughter's attention. I tiptoed to see where he was looking at while rubbing the part of my arm that he touched. It was tingling, _probably because of my utter disgust for the guy. _

"Where?" I asked as I craned my neck up. This is what I hate about this country. The people were too tall. The guy beside me was an exception. Small but have monster eyes.

"Near the clinic." He said pointing the direction. I followed to the direction his finger was pointing and my eyes widen when I saw my cute little kid standing near the clinic accompanied by his daughter and a nurse. Nervous and nearly having a panic attack, I asked, "Is he okay? What is he doing in the clinic?"

"He probably bruised his knee or my daughter bruised her knee or they are visiting the nurse." He explained but I still felt nervous. My son's an important part of me. It hurts me to see him hurt. My breathing became faster and my chest felt heavy and as I realized I was beginning to have a panic attack, his hands were already in my back, rubbing it gently to calm me down. _Mean God, you're adding to my panic attack. _

"Breath." He said in a soothing voice and I breathed and before I walked far away from him as possible I said, "I need to get my son."

I walked (almost running) briskly towards the clinic and I smiled in relief when I saw my son talking happily to my boss' little girl. Maybe Moe was the one whose sick.

"Kenji!" I cried happily as I hugged him tightly, "Are you okay?"

"I already gave him the medicines ma'am. He only needs rest and a lot of TLC." The nurse interrupted and I looked at my son worriedly as I felt his forehead with the back of my hand.

"You're sick?" I said feeling guilty, "Why didn't I notice it this morning? You should have stayed home. I'm sorry darling."

"Ma, I did not feel well this afternoon only. It's not your fault for not noticing anything." Kenji said and I saw the tiredness in his eyes. I looked at the nurse and asked, "Is he going to be okay?"

"Yeah. The school doctor have seen him." The nurse said. She got something from her pocket and gave it to me, "This is the prescription the doctor gave for your son's flu."

I accepted the prescription and when I looked at the medicine my head instantly calculated the cost and the money that I should find.

"Do you have a car?" Moe's voice break through my thoughts as she asked again, "Do you have a car?"

I almost rolled my eyes as I thought, _Rich kids. _

"No." Kenji replied, laughing, "My mother can't afford a car. We are not like you Moe. We're going to ride the train."

"The train? But your sick Kenji. Can you handle riding the train? My nanny said that the train is awfully cramped and I bet it's smelly too." Moe countered and I could see her devious little mind working. She looked at her daddy and said, "Daddy, let them ride the car. You can bring them home."

We have to go. "It's fine. Let's go home Kenji." I said sweetly as I tugged my son's arm away from the little imp.

"Bye Moe!" Kenji said, waving goodbye, "Bye Mr. Himura sir!"

"Daddy!" I could hear the spoiled little princess whine and I fasten my steps.

"Wait." _Ah, daddy to the rescue. _Run.

"My daughter's right." He said and my eyes widen when I felt his hand in my wrist. _Did he run to catch up?_

"Thank you for your kindness." I said politely and discreetly tried to pry my arm away from him, "But there's no need. We could handle this. If Kenji can't ride the train then I'll hire a cab."

"Cab's expensive." He pointed out and I could probably see his point if not for the hand that was still in my wrist that was distracting me. Damn, small guy!

"I'll call my fiancee then." I said and making a show of pulling out my cellphone and dialed my fiancee's number.

"Then you'll wait. Kenji is sick. Do you really want to let your sick son stand here and wait for your fiancee?" He pointed out exasperatedly and I could probably see his point if not for the hand that was still in my wrist that was distracting me. _When's he letting go?_

"Let's ride his car ma! I want to go sleep in my bed." Kenji whine as he tugged on the hem of my shirt. I saw the triumphant gleam on the small guy's eyes as he smiled genially at me. I forced a smile on my lips as I said, "We're taking too much of your time."

"Your taking up my time just standing here. Come Tomoe." He said impatiently and my eyes widen as he dragged me towards his car. I saw Moe and Kenji ran ahead to the car and I almost cried out for help.

"You can let go now." I said forcing the sugary sweetness in my voice. I gritted my teeth as I tried not to punch him in the gut. The man was the same as before. Forceful and impatient!

"You'll run."

What? "I just," _forcefully, _"agreed to ride on your car. Why would I run?"

He stopped suddenly and I almost bumped on his back. He looked at me that infuriating smirk on his lips, the one I admired when I loved him and said, "Intuition."

_What does that mean? _And before I could analyze it in my head, he was already pushing me inside his car.

_Demon God. You're going to give me an early death. _


	8. Chapter 8

**Serendipity**

_Maybe this pretending to be dead was not as awesome as I thought it was. I guess being half dead in that kind of fuck-up situation you would have thought it would be better off for everyone to think you were really dead and when someone gave that suggestion, you would have grabbed on for life and agreed wholeheartedly. At that moment it was the best idea you ever heard. You will realized only later that it was not. _

**Chapter 8**

**My Made Up Life**

It was my son's laughter together with _that man _that stopped me from my tracks. I silently watched him carry Kenji with my son's arms wrapped around his neck while he laughed at whatever _Kenshin Himura _was telling him. My heart sank and my stomach fluttered nervously at the thought of _what_ _ifs _crossed my mind. Kenji looked so much like him and to strangers' eyes, he would looked like the doting father to his child.

If Kaoru Kamiya was alive then..._maybe. _But she's dead and he could never be a doting father to _my _child.

* * *

_I looked at the dozen pregnancy test on the floor and I plunge my head back to the toilet to vomit. I wiped the bitter aftertaste of disappointment and reality and sat down on the floor as I stared restlessly at the nightmare in front of me._

_"What do I do?" I whispered anxiously as the reality of my situation finally sunked in. _

_"You can have the baby." Kamatari answered as he sat beside me in the bathroom floor. _

_I looked closed my eyes and muttered a sad fact, "I'll die." _

_"This is nothing! You survived the car crash. You're still fighting and kicking your disease to the curb. Getting pregnant would not kill you. I'll bet if we talk to your doctor they would say it would be okay. You're going to survive this. You're a fighter."_

_"I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't." I sobbed out, "I can't take care of myself. How could I take care of this thing?"_

_"Can you abort it?" Kamatari asked and I stared silently on the bathroom wall. Can I?_

_He sighed and I felt his arms wrapped around my waist as he pulled me closer to him. He lightly put his chin down my shoulder and said, "Don't worry. I'll be the second mother and Akira would be the father. We'll help you take care of the baby. We'll be like family."_

_"I agree about the we'll help you part but I can't be the father to your mother Kamatari. We'll both be the father. You're lucky, you have two men taking care after you and the baby." Akira said as he handed me a glass of water. I ignored it as I continued to stare at the bathroom wall as if it contain the answer to all my problems. _

_"Akira! I'm not a man! I'm a woman! Right darling?" _

_"It will remind me of him Kamatari. I ran away from him and now I'm having his baby? It will be constant torture!" I said, my voice rising in panic. I clutched my legs tightly and laid my head down on my knees. It made my tears ran down my thighs. _

_"Keep the baby." Kamatari answered after a minute of uncomfortable silence. He caressed my hair and said, "You can't get pregnant darling but you did. This is a miracle. You'll survive this. Even if the two of us are the only ones you've got but we'll help you survive this. We're here for you." _

_"Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. It's the way the universe is telling you that your second life would be full of miracles. Everything's going to be alright." Akira added. I looked up and saw that he was as frighten as I was._

* * *

Christine Weiss was Kenji's mother and his father died in the war. That's all there is to it. Kenshin Himura _is __only _my boss. I don't have to feel anything. _I __don__'__t._

So I squared my shoulders and put a smile on my face as I walked towards my son's school. They didn't noticed I was there, so absorbed in their conversation. Anger replaced apprehension and I had to control myself not to forcibly take Kenji away from his arms.

I cleared my throat to let them know of my presence and the smile plastered on my face almost fell as father and son turned to face me, wearing identical grins on their faces. Unconsciously, I gripped the engagement ring on my finger.

* * *

_"Is this seat taken?"_

_I stopped adding the bills and picked up my bag on the empty chair and put it next to the pile of bills on the coffee table. _

_"No. Excuse the mess." I said without looking up and grabbed another paper and entered it's amount on the calculator. I looked at the total amount and I winced at the ugly truth. If daddy's credit cards were here..._

_I knew that Kamatari and Akira had secretly paid everything else that was not on this pile. They were not exactly thrilled that I went back to teaching as soon as Kenji can go to daycare. Kamatari, especially was so against it that my first day back at work he cried and manhandled me back to the house. _

"As much as I want to sleep all day Kamatari, I can't. I have bills to pay and food to put in my mouth."

"I can help you pay the bills! I'll put food in the table! You don't have to work! You're sick for goodness sake!"

"But I'm not an invalid. I can't rely on you forever Kamatari. I don't want to live like a parasite."

_I smiled wryly, it was just pride talking. The reality was more hard to handle. I was a rich girl. Money came easy and now... The medication, childcare and day to day expenses were all eating up the money I painstakingly saved and it was still not enough. _

_I drank the frappe cappuccino I ordered and the bittersweet taste made me instantly guilty. I looked at the mug on my hand and sigh, add this to my already piling debt. I took off my glasses and rubbed my eyes as the painful reality of being broke reared it's ugly head. It was frustrating. _

_"I can't do this." I said softly to myself._

_"I can help."_

_I bit my lip as so not to laugh. I'm pathetic. A complete stranger! Do I look so helpless? _

_"Let me help." He repeated again. Insulted and annoyed, I looked up to tell the stupid thing off but when a familiar face met my eyes, I froze._

_"Kaoru." He said softly (affectionately) and my survival instinct turned on. It wanted me to ran as fast as I can and away from here. _

_Enishi_

_The first thought that came to mind was that I clearly need a disguise because being dead was not enough. A blonde wig perhaps? _

_The second was, damn! Purely acting on instinct and emotion, I tentatively touched the swollen eye and the broken nose and ask, "Who beat you up?"_

_He laughed._

* * *

I twisted the engagement ring around my finger and said, "You should not let Sir Himura carry you Kenji. You're big and you must be heavy."

"Ah no. It's no big deal really."

"I'm not comfortable that you're carrying my son sir. You're my boss." I said and he put Kenji down. I grabbed my son's arm and pulled him closer to me. I felt much safer this way.

"Mommy! Moe invited me to go have dinner with them! Let's go mommy!" Kenji asked, his eyes pleading.

"Where's Moe?" I asked, completely ignoring Kenji's question.

Kenshin smiled as he looked at the school and said, "She went back inside. She forgot something. So about that dinner?"

"She can't go." I heard someone answered for me. I turned around and I smiled as I saw who it was.

"Uncle Enishi!" Kenji cried out excitedly as he ran and cling to him.

* * *

A/N: Constructive criticism is always welcome.


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